


Pokemon Uranium - Steel type playthrough

by Dynamite3539



Category: Pokemon Fan Games, Pokemon Uranium - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-09
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-08-30 00:23:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 50
Words: 143,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8511601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dynamite3539/pseuds/Dynamite3539
Summary: Account of 14 year old Ari's journey through Tandor, with a steel-type team. Based on fangame Pokemon Uranium. Features original content as well as following the general progression of the game. Now with illustrations!





	1. Starter

"Ari, geddup!" Auntie yelled for the fifth time, pounding weakly on my door. I prised open my bleary eyes for the fifth time and attempted to extricate myself from the bed, also for the fifth time.

"You're twenty minutes late! Already! How do you hope to be employable with a work ethic like that?!" Auntie continued her lecture.

"I'm fourteen," I yelled back. "I'm not supposed to be employable."

I smirked to myself. Well, at least the slanging match had woken me up. I kicked off the covers and stretched out my arms. Too much staying up late and trolling on Reddit. Whatever!

I suppose I should tell you a bit more about myself. The name's Ari, I'm a Capricorn, I want to be a miner when I grow up but who am I kidding, I'd probably have a heart attack just lifting up a drill and doing some manual labour.

Am I a boy or a girl? Who cares? I sure don't. And if you do… Well, sucks to be you, 'cause you're never gonna find out.

I live in Moki Town with the old coot outside there, she's my great aunt and about five hundred years old. My dad jettisoned me twelve years ago, too much extra baggage I suppose, and I never knew my mum. Auntie tells me stories about them all the time but I don't wanna hear it.

I've never admitted this to anyone, but I guess it's because it hurts. Yeah, yours truly Ari hurts inside as well.

I pulled on my characteristic hoodie and a green bandana for the AestheticTM. Time to eat breakfast and go bum around with the Pokémon Professor. Auntie got me to apply for a job there a while ago, when I was really tired and would do anything to make her go away.

"See ya Auntie," I called, sliding down the banisters with an armful of candy. She poked her head out of the kitchen door.

"I made you eggs and bacon!" she said. The smell was very enticing, but I didn't want to give in.

"I'm going to be late," I said with a smirk. "Remember?"

Without a further word, I sauntered out of the front door and stripped a Mars bar of its wrapper.

The Professor's lab was right at the northern end of town, on top of this big ass cliff which I was not looking forward to climbing. Why couldn't they put a ski lift or something in? That would be so sick.

"Hey, wait up!" came a boisterous voice from behind me. I rolled my eyes. This kid Theo was always following me around, like he was cool enough to be my friend or something.

Well, okay, I guess he had to be, because I didn't have any other friends in this goddamn town.

Theo zipped past me with his boundless reserves of energy. I wheezed as I dragged myself forward.

"Don't keep me waiting!" Theo yelled over his shoulder and disappeared over the crest of the hill.

I took a moment to compose myself at the top and looked back over the town. It was a nice enough day. I should really get outside more, I thought. Ah… Who am I kidding? I hope the Professor has me entering numbers for his research. I could hack his database. That would be hilarious.

I turned around and went through the automatic doors of Bamb'o Pokémon Labs, and the doors closed behind me with a hiss.

I looked around in awe at all the high tech gear inside. Nice!

"Whaddaya waiting for?!" Theo yelled impatiently from inside the main lab, his lab coat hanging off his twiggy arms as Professor Bamb'o tried in vain to pull it onto his body. But Theo just would not sit still. I felt like laughing.

An assistant handed me my own lab coat and I shrugged into it coolly, letting the sides swish and flap around me like I was in a toothpaste commercial.

"Oh Ari, you're here," Bamb'o said with a tired smile, the circles under his eyes barely obscured by the pair of cheap sunglasses on his face. Sunglasses indoors? Even I wasn't that extreme.

"Well kids," he continued. "I suppose we'd better get started and make up for lost time."

Bamb'o turned around and pulled two sheets of paper off a desk behind him. "You'll need a pokémon companion to keep you safe if you're heading out of town," he said. "Just fill out these tests for me, and I'll give you a starter you can work well with."

"We're heading out of town?" I asked in surprise at the same time as Theo hollered, "Test?! I don't wanna do a test, gramps!"

"Theo, keep your voice down," Bamb'o said in exasperation. "There's people working in here. It's not an actual test, more like a questionnaire. And Ari, to answer your question, yes. I would like you to explore the region a bit and help me record the types of pokémon we have here in Tandor."

I groaned internally. Tandor was huge. Who knew how many more hills I would have to climb. I hoped that Bamb'o would give me a pokémon I could ride on the back of.

I looked down at the test in my hands. Just four easy questions. I relaxed. No problem.

Firstly: When I encounter a new pokémon in the wild, what is my reaction? Ehh… Like that was something that happened to me every day. I probably wouldn't know what to do, so I ticked 'Wait and see what it does'.

Secondly: which TM would I prefer to teach my pokémon… well that's a no brainer! Of course it's Hyper Beam! I tried building a death ray once in Auntie's shed. Scared the living daylights out of her, I remembered fondly.

Thirdly: who would win in an all-out battle? I considered the choices carefully. Gyarados was strong, but had a double weakness to Ampharos. And Gliscor, did anyone actually use that pokémon in real life? I ticked Ampharos.

And finally: what is your motivation for becoming a pokémon trainer?

I groaned. Enough of these questions about me. I didn't know what I wanted to have for breakfast the next day, let alone my goals in life. What was this, one of Auntie's career counselling sessions? My eyes glazed over as I looked over the options.

Well, there was no way I was in it to become the very best, like no-one ever was. I simply didn't have the interest in pokémon for that. Making new friends? Hah. Do you think I'm the kind of person who's good at making friends?

The last option was 'exploring the region'. Well, Bamb'o had mentioned exploring the region as one of the job roles earlier, so I ticked that for some brownie points.

Theo was still munching on the end of his pencil and thinking when I handed my test in.

"Thanks Ari," Bamb'o said, scrutinising my paper through his sunglasses. I wanted to take them off for him.

His frown deepened as he considered my answers. "Well this is interesting," he said. "You seem to be a very well rounded person, Ari." I almost snorted out loud. "But I do see you leaning in one particular direction – defensive battling, taking time to smell the roses. Therefore, your starter will be Orchynx!"

I had never heard of this pokémon before. As Bamb'o opened his cabinet to take out the ball, I prayed silently. Please let it be a pokémon I can ride on. Please let it be…

A kitten emerged from the ball. A kitten! With little steel bands on its feet! I looked at it in horror. This little dweeb probably needed me to carry it, let alone the other way round. I started to sweat just thinking about the exercise involved.

"Thanks, Teach," I said, but the disappointment on my face was obvious.

"What are you thinking, Ari?" Bamb'o said, tilting his head. "I know he doesn't look strong now, but I promise you, this thing becomes a tank if you train it properly."

"Sure thing. Thanks," I said again.

Then the Orchynx started to meow and made its way towards me, surprisingly light footed despite the steel. It rubbed up against my legs, and my heart melted despite myself… I leaned down to stroke its green fur. "Hi kitty," I said.

"All right pops, when's it gonna be MY turn?!" Theo yelled impatiently. Neither Bamb'o nor I had noticed him finish up the test.

"Sorry Theo," Bamb'o sighed. "Let's have a look at yours now."

Bamb'o squinted and moved the paper closer to his face. He squinted more. And more. Eventually he had to remove his sunglasses. "Are you serious?!" he said, as I admired the circles under his eyes in fascination, now they were exposed in all their glory.

"Yellow crayon?!" Bamb'o looked ready to rage quit. I felt like laughing. The kitty climbed onto my shoulders as I crouched there on the ground, and wrapped itself around my neck like a fluffy towel.

Theo giggled.

Bamb'o scanned the paper quickly. "Well, yours is a bit easier than Ari's… okay, I've made my decision! For an energetic person like you with ounces of potential, and the possibility to go either way with your battling style, the starter Eletux is perfect!"

"All right!" Theo pumped his fist in the air and rushed forward to rip the ball from Bamb'o's hands.

"Careful!" the Professor yelled as Theo punted the ball into the air.

"Go! Ele-whatever you're called!" Theo shouted in excitement. Eletux emerged from the ball and landed on the floor with a splat. Small sparks of electricity came from its flanks, and its slick fur looked waterproof, like that of an otter.

"Hey Ari! Let yours down on the floor! I wanna fight!"

"Theo, don't you dare –" Bamb'o rushed forward in vain, then resorted to protecting his laptop as Theo yelled, "Use water gun!"

I'd barely let kitty down on the ground before a blast of water from Eletux soaked into its fur. Great.

"Use Scratch, kitty!" I countered, but before it even had the chance to move forward Eletux had pounced on it with a tackle. I closed my eyes in horror. How embarrassing. Everyone in town would soon know Theo had beat me up.

That's when I heard Eletux bray in shock and my eyes sprang open. Wow. Kitty barely seemed hurt, and he'd just landed a critical hit on Eletux.

"Hey, what's going on?!" Theo yelled. "I got two attacks in! That's not fair! Ellie use water gun!"

Eletux pulled its remaining strength together and landed another deluge on kitty. But kitty just shook the water off and went forward with another scratch!

Theo's eyes were wide with horror as his Eletux collapsed to the ground, fainted.

"Nice work, kitty!" I said triumphantly, picking the creature up to hold it all Simba-style.

"Owww!" I yelled and dropped it immediately as current surged into my hands. "What was that, man?!"

Bamb'o extracted himself from behind the desk he was using as a shield. "Hmm," he said. "It looks like Orchynx got paralysed when it attacked. That's okay, I'll heal him up."

"Don't forget mine!" Theo shrieked, his face red and tears in his eyes.

"Okay…" Bamb'o said, slightly taken aback. "I have plenty of potions here, don't worry."

I watched on, slightly amused, as Theo's tantrum worsened. "Why'd they get the better pokémon?! Why'd you treat theirs first?! It's not fair!" Theo opened his mouth wide and started to bawl.

Bamb'o's workers were stirring at their stations, trying to catch a glimpse of the drama. I looked around and waved to them graciously, and they turned away quickly. The pokémon champion. Thank you, thank you.

"Don't get all cocky now, Ari," Bamb'o said to me as he fed Eletux a potion. "Your pokémon is only level five. There's a long way to go until you can even think about calling yourself strong."

"Harsh," I said. But Bamb'o had caught me basking in the glory. Best not to argue.

Theo scooped up his revived pokémon in his arms and ran out of the lab, still crying. Kitty lay at my feet and I bent down to give it a belly scratch. Bamb'o sighed. "He'll be all right, I suppose," he said, looking after Theo with what I thought was a bit too much concern. Theo threw tanties all the time, and he always forgot about them by the next day.

"Would you go get his lab coat back for me? Those cost fifty bucks a pop," Bamb'o said tiredly. "It's hardly easy to get government funding these days."

"Okay, fine," I said.

"Take it easy on him, okay?" Bamb'o said.

I rolled my eyes and opened another Mars bar. "Whatever. Thanks for the cat. See ya later."

"Oh wait, before I forget!" Bamb'o called out, scrabbling through the mass of papers on his desk. "Come meet me by route 1, I'll start you off on your journeys. Bring Theo along, all right?"

If I can get him out of his cry station, I thought. Theo always hid under his bed in the foetal position when he was upset.

"Fine. Bye."

My stomach grumbled as I walked back down the hill, a much easier task I noted with relief. I thought guiltily of Auntie's eggs. She does try hard. Maybe I should go home and eat them first.


	2. Theo

I dawdled over to Theo's after polishing off breakfast at Auntie's. Kitty trotted along behind me, the steel on its tail and feet clacking against pebbles on the path. Maybe it was nice to be outside for a change, with the summer sun beating down. I was probably missing some hot action on Reddit though.

"Theo!" I warbled, hammering on the door. "Bamb'o wants his clothes back!"

Theo's father opened the door. I gulped. He looked unamused. Theo was definitely at his cry station, then.

"What did you say?"

"Er…" I giggled and leaned on the doorframe with exaggerated nonchalance. "Theo took off in Bamb'o's lab coat, he wants it back."

Cameron eyed me up and down and caught sight of kitty. "You got the grass one, then? Ironic." He seemed to laugh at some private joke in his head and I scowled. The adults in this stupid town loved to gossip about layabout Ari and what they did all day.

"Go away!" came a scream from upstairs. "I never want to talk to you again!"

Cameron's expression soured further, if that was even possible. "What did you do to him, kid?"

"M…me?!" I stammered, putting on the act of innocence. Cameron folded his arms. I sighed. "My kitty beat up his pokemon."

Cameron considered me for a second and nodded. "Theo! Get out from under the bed and come down here!" he yelled upstairs. "Ari, come in. I want to talk to you both."

I stepped into the house. It was smaller than Auntie's mansion (she used to be an extortionist when she was younger, or so she claims. I think she just had a banker for a husband), but more homely. My heart contracted on me and I cursed my own weakness. Get a grip, you fool.

Theo shuffled down the stairs, sniffling lamely. Wasted opportunity to slide down those glorious banisters, I thought.

"Now kids," Cameron said when we were both seated at the kitchen table with mugs of hot chocolate. "You're officially pokemon trainers now."

Theo's lip quavered dramatically. I refrained from beating him over the head.

"That means you need to learn to stay grounded," Cameron continued. "You'll be away from home a lot now – and us adults won't be around to pick you up if you make a mess of things. You need to learn that losses and mistakes aren't the end of the world, they're there so you can learn from them."

"Yes dad," Theo said in a mousy, melancholic voice.

"Ari's starter had the type advantage – they were more likely to win from the start. It just means you need to –"

"Work on my team's weaknesses, I know," Theo grumbled. "What do you think I am, five? I'll get a Pajay and burn up that cat."

Cameron tutted. "Don't talk so violently. Though I think I know where you get it from." He gave me a disapproving glance and I smiled angelically.

"So, promise me you'll look after yourselves?" Cameron said, wrapping up the discussion.

I shrugged. Theo gave an energetic salute. Well, someone was back from the dumps.

"Gimme the coat, I'll take it back to Bamb'o," I said.

Theo grinned. "You? Going back up that hill? Give me a break. Catch you later, loser!" He drained his hot chocolate and legged it out of the door.

Cameron shook his head. "Well, he's certainly a resilient one, young Theo."

He turned around and grabbed a box from the countertop. "Here, take one of these to give to him. I got them from your father in Belbeach, he wanted you to have them when you left home."

I received the pokepod from Cameron. It looked like a smartphone, just with buttons instead of a touch screen. What was this nineties shit. I stuffed it into my pocket along with Theo's. I didn't want to look at any present from Kellyn.

"Go along then, and good luck on your journey. Don't forget, you can come home any time you need to."

"Cheers," I said, and nodded towards Cameron and his wife on my way out.

I was about halfway to the hill leading up to the Bamb'o labs when a boisterous yell pierced my eardrums from the west. "ARI! Over here! What are ya, blind?!"

Theo was jumping up and down, waving his scrawny arms from the entrance to Route 1. Bamb'o stood beside him, holding his reclaimed lab coat, and rubbing at his temples. I rolled my eyes and slouched over to join them.

"God, could you walk ANY slower?" Theo scolded as soon as I was within earshot. I slowed down a little bit more for good measure.

Theo rushed forward to grab onto me and pull me forward the last few metres.

"Okay, now that everyone's here…" Bamb'o reached into his pocket and brought out a pokeball. "This is the type of ball you'll be using to catch pokemon in the wild. There's some more in that box over there – go help yourselves."

As Bamb'o continued with his demonstration of weakening a wild pokemon and catching it, Theo barely paid any attention. He first juggled, then kicked, then tried to balance the balls on his nose.

"Listen up, grunt," I said to him. "You're gonna get pawned out there if you don't catch more pokemon."

"What do you think I am, three?!" Theo yelled. "I've seen this a trillion times on TV!"

Bamb'o threw up his arms in defeat, the newly caught Chyinmunk emerging again from the flung ball. "You can go," Bamb'o said to it. "I got plenty of these things at the lab already," he addressed us. "It's all I seem to get from Wonder Trade."

"So, where are we gonna go next?!" Theo asked.

Bamb'o straightened his sunglasses. "At the end of route 1 is another town, Kevlar Town. After that, you'll need to head through a cave to get to Nowtoch City. There's a pokemon gym there which you can challenge to get a badge. You'll need those badges to be able to use stronger pokemon."

"Sick," I said. I thought about parading around with a chest full of badges. Haha! Kellyn will have to cower at my feet and grovel for forgiveness by the time I see him again.

"You can use the pokemon centres in each town to heal up, rest for the night, and," he spoke to me for some obscure reason, "use the internet."

He bent down to pick up the box of balls. Theo giggled and pointed at Bamb'o's underwear, which had slipped out the top of his shorts as he bent. I giggled as well.

"All right then, Ari," Theo yelled. "I'm off. You're never gonna catch me. I'm gonna beat that gym first!"

And with that, he sprinted off into the woods, whooping as he went, Eletux galloping after him with the same spirited energy.


	3. Route 1 - Kevlar - Nowtoch

"See ya," I waved to Bamb'o and began the trudge through the long grass into the forest. The pokepods in my pocket dug into my thighs. Great. Theo ran off before I had a chance to give one to him.

Once amongst the trees, I let my eyes adjust to the darkness, my old friend, and took a good look around.

Kitty mewed from behind me so I picked it up with a colossal cracking of joints and placed it on my shoulder. "You're gonna make me cart you around like this forever, aren't ya," I said. Kitty purred happily.

"Hey, Ari!" a whiny high-pitched voice accosted me from behind some bushes. "How come you're out to play today?"

I rolled my eyes. You thought Theo was annoying before? This kid, I can't even remember her name, was another two years younger and probably pioneered the art of irritating one's seniors.

"Sup," I said in reply.

She pouted. "You know we have to battle, right? Because now you're a pokemon trainer too."

What a lot of work! This was not what I signed up for. I couldn't wait to get to Kevlar Town and hit up those PCs in the PC (I rapped it in my head), but rules are rules I suppose.

I let kitty down on the ground and it tried to grasp onto my shirt in protest. At least there'd be no conflict of interest between me and kitty.

"Go, Birbie!" shrieked the little kid, and I felt my brain cells dying.

A bird emerged from her pokeball and sang a lilting song. "Kitty, crush it with Scratch!" I yelled. Before kitty could bring itself to react, the enemy Birbie whipped up a gust of wind around it. I smirked as kitty looked around in bemusement, then licked its barely disturbed fur back into place. Haha! This was great!

Kitty landed scratch on the bird, which recoiled in pain. Another two rounds of this, and the Birbie fainted.

"Argh!" the little kid said, her face beetroot red. "How could you hurt my cute pokemon like that?! Whatever, I'm still not going to lose. Go, Chyinmunk!"

The annoying rodent emerged from her second ball.

Kitty barely needed to hear my instructions by now. It was an endless cycle of walling enemy damage, then inflicting suffering with Scratch. This was so easy, I almost laughed with delight (but stopped myself just in time).

When Chyinmunk fainted, the girl looked close to tears. But she bravely fished out some of her pocket money and handed it to me. "You won, so here's your prize money. Well done, Ari."

"Oh, nice," I said. I got money from doing this? Sick! "See ya round, champ," I said to her, in a good mood now. She waved back to me, picked up her injured pokemon and headed back towards town.

I made my way through route 1 in similar fashion, breathing in the fresh air and beating up a few more little kids. Kitty got stronger and stronger, and reached about level 10 by the time we arrived in Kevlar Town.

I'd ignored the wild pokemon on the route, which consisted almost exclusively of Birbie, Chyinmunk and some gruesome insect which I tried not to step on. Nothing cool there. I hoped there'd be some mines or caves coming up later.

My pokepod had seen some action, a kid called Richie hitting me up near the exit of the forest. I got it out reluctantly and took down his number. I put it into Theo's as well for good measure.

So here I was, out of the bush and back into town! I rushed to the pokemon centre in relief and sat myself at the free computers. Awesome. I thought I'd just check Facebook and Reddit quickly, but by the time I looked away from the screen it was dark outside, kitty was asleep at my feet, and the nurse at the counter was giving me dirty looks. Oops.

"Can I book a room for tonight?" I asked her, scooping up kitty which protested with a tired meow.

"Sure thing," she said in her fake polite customer service voice, giving me a brilliant fake smile. "That'll be $20, please."

I fished some of the day's winnings from my pocket and handed the money to her in return for a key.

"Level two, third on the right," she said, her smile never wavering as I made my way to the elevators.

I woke up to scratching on my face. I groggily lifted my head to check the alarm clock beside the bed. 7.30am! Inhumane! I let out a pathetic screech and sank back under the covers. The scratching continued.

Meow! Meow! Oh for fuck's sake. I opened my eyes again, reluctantly, to see kitty standing on top of me. "Whaddaya want," I snapped.

I felt bad immediately afterwards, kitty had fought so hard for me yesterday. "Do ya want food then, is that it?"

Christ, caring for a pokemon was so much work. I hauled myself out of the lovely warm bed, crying internally, and pulled on my clothes.

Down in the restaurant area of the centre, I pulled a plastic bowl from the big pile beside the cat food dispenser, fumbled a $2 coin into the machine, and sat back with my eyes closed as kitty tucked in beside me.

Ah, the sweet release of slumber… I felt myself drifting off…

"Excuse me!" a voice cut rudely through my veil of sleepiness. "You can't sit here, you're blocking everyone else's way!"

I peeled open my eyelids in disbelief to see the nurse from last night glaring down at me. Well okay, I would be grumpy too on a 12 hour night shift.

"Sorry," I grumbled and picked up kitty, which had finished eating.

There was no point going back to bed now. I handed the key back at the counter and walked out of the pokemon centre, wincing as the light of day touched my eyes.

"Ari, over and out," I said to the sign which bid me farewell as I headed out of town. There'd be a better centre in Nowtoch City, I was sure. I'd prepare some food for kitty before I went to bed, then I could have a nice big sleep in.

Plus, I really wanted to find Theo so I could get rid of this extra blasted pokepod in my pocket.

I realised immediately that I was entering serious territory now. The trainers were older, much older than me – grown men (which was a little creepy, but I did spend a lot of time on Reddit so I wasn't too fussed), people with actual career choices and experience under their belts.

The first guy I matched raised birds for a living – like seriously, who does that – and he was an easy win for me. I gave the hiker a wide berth though, I saw he had a Mankey up on his shoulder, when it wasn't clowning around stealing food from the backpacks of passing tourists.

I looked past him, as he wasn't facing my way anyway, and saw a delightful cave entrance just beyond. Awesome!

"C'mon kitty!" I said with what I'm embarrassed to admit was excitement, and we ducked into the cave together. I let my eyes adjust to the darkness, my old friend.

There were so many cool pokemon in here! I looked around and saw little stony lizards, some kind of bat, but the coolest of all was this thing that looked like a lump of rock with some steel wire coming out of its head. Nice! I wanted one of those, it looked like it could survive an explosion. (Or maybe not, I giggled to myself as I thought about the big rounds that are blasted in mines).

I went up to one of the rock lumps and set kitty down. "Okay, like Bamb'o says, let's weaken it," I said. "Kitty, use vine whip!"

For once, kitty moved first. I mock bowed to the pokemon and darkness around me. I was right though, the rock was a wall. It took barely any damage from the grass attack. Another couple of rounds and I threw a pokeball – gotcha!

My pokepod beeped from inside my pocket. I took it out, its luminous screen stabbing into my eyes just like my phone screen in the middle of the night.

'New pokemon registered – Barewl.' What the hell? Oh wait, I did remember seeing Bamb'o chatting at Theo's house a couple of days ago. The Professor probably put some new apps on these things before Cameron gave them to me.

Whatever. I shrugged and was about to tuck it away when the screen changed. A list of numbers… Oh, awesome! This was gonna be useful. One of Bamb'o's apps was letting me see the stats – IVs and EVs of the pokemon! This is more like it, I thought to myself.

So this Barewl had a brave nature, and its IVs weren't terrible… I knew the max was 31, and there were a couple of 28s in there. Good enough for me. I patted the pokeball in my pocket.

I headed back to Kevlar Town for a quick lunch at the pokemon centre – I'd spent way longer in the cave than expected – before continuing onwards towards the lights and glamour of Nowtoch City, Nowtoch.

I got through the cave and to the fringes of the city just as dusk was falling. There weren't actually that many lights here, though there was an unhealthy amount of litter on the streets. Awesome!

It had been a long day and I could feel my eyelids drooping. I'd never done so much walking in my life, let alone with a fat cat strapped immovably to my neck.

But before I could head to the pokemon centre, a commotion to my right distracted me.

"What are you doing in my house? Get out!" a woman's voice shrieked. A weedy man's voice threaded itself through the windows to reach my ears. "I just wanted to bring you a present, Maria."

"Get out!" the woman yelled again. I'd better check this out. If this were Auntie getting attacked, I'd want someone to help her.

I pushed open the door, which was ajar, to see a large man trying to grasp onto this woman's shoulders, two bulky shopping bags hanging from his arms. "Please Maria! You know I'm your biggest fan!"

"Oi, douchetard," I yelled from the door, and threw kitty down onto the floor. "Let her go, or get crushed by my pokemon!"

The man reached up to cover his face in horror. "Oh no, please! I'm leaving! Don't hurt me! I'm not a trainer!" He pushed past me and jumped about ten feet in the air when kitty made to move in his direction.

By now the woman, Maria, had grabbed for her pokeballs as well. "Throw my key in the letterbox!" she yelled after the man.

He nodded in terror and emptied his pockets of at least twenty keys. We both watched on in fascination.

Maria sighed. "Thank you for helping me," she said. "I already got a restraining order but there's no keeping him away."

"That sucks. Sorry," I said. She seemed nice. Was she famous though? What was that the douche said about being her 'fan'? Was he just a dumb ex?

"Anyway, I'm Maria. What's your name?"

"I'm Ari," I said.

"Nice to meet you, Ari." Maria smiled warmly. "So you're a pokemon trainer – that means you'll be wanting to challenge my gym!" She was the gym leader? Sick! "You'll have to wait till tomorrow, though. We close at 6pm."

"Yeah, no probs," I said. "I probably need to train anyway."

I said bye to Maria and she sent me off with a packet of brownies. (I fed some to kitty first and it seems lucid enough, so I'm going to eat them). Hopefully because I saved her from her stalker, she will take it easy on me at the gym tomorrow.

But for now, sleep…


	4. Maria

I opened my eyes and stretched luxuriously. The bedside clock read 11.30am. That was better, yeah!

I reached for my phone to check the interwebs as I did every morning at home... Nope, phone wasn't there. I let my eyes scan over the scabby old hotel room.

Something was wrong, but I couldn't quite place my finger on it… Get a grip, Ari.

I gasped when it hit me. Where were my pokemon? Where was my bag?

"Kitty!" I called, probably a bit too concerned for my own liking.

I hauled myself out of bed. At the very least, my clothes were still on the chair, so I wouldn't have to walk around looking like a hobo in my ratty five year old PJs. (For all her extravagant wealth, Auntie always preferred to splash out on diversified investments, rather than spoil me or herself with non-durable consumer goods).

"Kitty!" I yelled again, turning my head from side to side to look down the dingy corridors.

After receiving no response, I hurried down to reception. Bamb'o was gonna rip my limbs off me if he found out I lost my starter pokemon.

"Hey," I said, pulling up at the counter… But there was no nurse. What the hell?!

I turned to the automatic doors and continued the jog outside, wheezing.

There, over by the gym! A commotion! I supported myself on a lamp-post and vowed to start an exercise regime.

"Stand down!" The gym leader, Maria, was talking. Someone else was beside her, with long black hair. I thought they were a man, but I wasn't sure. I smirked to myself.

A crowd was gathering, and people were exclaiming, "My pokemon! My _!" and surging forward. I craned my neck, struggling to get a glimpse.

No use. I would have to push forward.

"Scuse me!" I yelled, shouldering my way through the crowd. This was no easy feat. I was buffeted around like an electron trying to make its way through a resistor. I was getting hot and sweaty.

At long last, after ducking underneath someone's mangy armpit, I reached the front of the crowd and gasped.

Surrounding a masked figure up on the steps of the gym were at least fifty pokemon of various species. I recognised some from the earlier routes, and some I had never seen before.

"Kitty!" I gasped again, catching sight of it in the middle of the melee. "Kitty, come here!"

But it didn't seem to be able to hear me. The pokemon were all huddled tightly around their new leader, locked into what appeared to be battle stances. I groaned. What was this, a scene out of Divergent?

"Stand down!" Maria ordered again. The masked figure was like a statue, they seemed to be communicating to the pokemon via brainwaves or something.

"All right, that's it! Everyone get back!" Maria's companion said, removing a pokeball from their pocket.

The crowd shrank back like gums from gingivitis. I didn't like what was going down. I crept forward to retrieve my kitty while everyone was distracted.

A blast of light from the pokeball, a hollow rattling cry from the emerged specimen, and I was knocked to the ground… What ground? I was falling through space, at an extremely wicked speed.

Yikes! I grasped at a rock floating down beside me but my hand passed right through. I was gaining speed. The backdrop of stars glittered and flashed, blinding me. Under gaming circumstance this would've been awesome, but this felt too real to be computer-based.

"Hey. Hey, wake up," something was pinching my twiggy arms.

"Are you okay?"

I opened my eyes. I was lying on the solid ground, in front of the gym of Nowtoch City, Nowtoch. Maria was leaning over me, concerned. Her partner was beside her.

I looked around. The masked figure was being handcuffed by rangers, and people were reclaiming their pokemon. I heard a meow and kitty rubbed against my head.

"They're okay," Maria said. "Man, that was close. We did tell everyone to get back, what were you thinking?"

"Sorry fam," I said, reaching up to feel my face. Everything in place. "What happened anyway?"

"We attacked the thief with Psychic," Maria answered. "You got hit as well."

I looked over to see the person staggering away after the rangers. They were actually wearing a ranger uniform as well, albeit in slightly weird colours.

"They're a ranger? That's screwed up."

Maria shrugged. "Only rangers have the ability to round up pokemon like that, with their capture styluses. It shouldn't work on trainer pokemon though…"

She got up to chat with her partner, who gave me a wave and an apology before flying away on a large green thing with a flower on its tail.

Maria helped me up, and I wobbled a bit on my feet before straightening up. "Thanks," I said.

Kitty wrapped itself around my ankles. Well the little traitor was back in home camp then. Where was my Barewl? Ah, there it was, riding on kitty's back, hiding in its fur. So much for a brave nature. I looked on enviously.

"If you're still feeling up to it, I'll open up the gym now," Maria said.

"Yup, I'm in," I said, my head pounding. I never backed down from a challenge. Where in hell's name was Theo? I was getting radiation burns from too many pokepods in my pocket.

The innards of the gym looked a bit like an aircraft hangar without any aircraft. Just a big old open space and a few trainers scattered around, battling away.

"C'mon guys," I nudged kitty with my foot. The layabout had fallen asleep on the floor, probably tired by its ordeal with the ranger. "I know the feels."

The pokemon here all looked pretty low level. Kitty and pyrite (Barewl had to have a suitable nickname) were up to level 13 by now, and they were actual walls, so I figured they'd be fine even if they had to nap during the battle.

"What's up, kiddo!" a boisterous voice greeted me from the left. What was this Theo spirit everyone except me seemed to have?!

"Welcome to your first gym challenge!" he said, looking down at a laptop he was typing into. "Can I take your name and trainer ID?"

I looked at him suspiciously. I had almost become an anarchist last year, and I still wasn't too keen on the pilfering of citizens' personal information by bodies of authority.

"Err…" I said.

"Come on, it's just for the server so we can keep track of who has what badges. There's been a lot of counterfeiting recently." He pushed tiredly at his glasses. "We don't even need contact information."

"Fine." I pulled out my trainer card and he took it for a couple of seconds.

"Thanks Ari," he said, filling in my ID (33539) into the computer. "Good luck."

I dragged my profusely protesting team forwards. Kitty hung onto my ankles meowing piteously at the prospect of doing some work.

I swept my way through the line of training battles with kids from the local school. I hoped they got paid for the repeated thrashing they must get in here. They didn't seem too fussed by losing and wished me luck, so I figured the paychecks must be quite sufficient.

"Okay, let's break for lunch!" Maria called out from the far end of the building during a lull in the battling. Kitty reacted with the most ebullience of all the living souls in the room. It lay down in front of me, paws in the air, tongue out, ready for a belly scritchies and fattening meal.

I ate lunch with Maria, because we seemed to be the only people without friends in here. She didn't talk about the weird person I'd met this morning with the Psychic pokemon, but we did chat about my journey so far. She knew of Bamb'o.

"So steel, huh? We'll put up a fight, but you're probably going to win, Ari."

I smirked. "Oh yeah? I figured."

Maria smiled back. "I might as well just give you the badge now. But we'll go through the formalities. Don't get too cocky though. Starting from the third gym, you're not going to have such a good time if you don't diversify."

I yawned. "You sound like my Auntie with her investment portfolio."

"Then your Auntie sounds like a wise person. You should listen to her."

Whatever! I didn't want no pesky bird pokemon, or feral bugs or dogs or whatever. I might be keen on some psychic types after what I'd seen this morning, but I didn't think there'd be any this early on in my journey. Don't want the kids to get too OP after all, I thought with a grin.

The battle began after lunch. I sent out pyrite first to take a beating, and kitty was happy with that.

"Go, Owten!" Maria said, sending out her first pokemon.

"Pyrite, use Headbutt," I ordered. Something I was used to by now, the enemy Owten attacked first and pyrite stone walled all attempts to get to it. Maria lifted her shoulders and grinned. "I told you so."

Maria withdrew Owten after a couple rounds of pain to give it a break, and sent out Feleng. Meow! Oh, cute! Kitty seemed curious and wandered over to say hi, but the Feleng growled and hissed in response. Harsh.

In the end, I didn't even have to send kitty into battle. Despite Feleng and Felunge's attempts at yawning on pyrite, they were unable to do enough damage to even put a decent chip in pyrite's HP, and Headbutt slowly and surely took all of Maria's pokemon out.

We actually chatted during the battle as the pokemon did their thing. Maria had already accepted she couldn't beat my team with her typing, so we laughed about it.

I left the gym on good terms, feeling like I'd made a friend. I'd probably never see Maria again after this though, so time to sever all feelings of affection so I wouldn't be sad and miss her. I looked down at the shiny new badge on my chest and thought about my meeting with Kellyn. I both dreaded it and looked forward to terrifying him with my newfound power.


	5. Hometown history

"Ari dear," Auntie said on the phone. "Have you been eating enough vegetables?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, Auntie." I thought about the two pieces of lettuce in my burger.

"You've been gone three days now," she said, sounding wistful. I wanted to laugh. "It's getting lonely here in the house. Are you having so much fun out there you don't want to come home?"

"Lots of fun," I assured her. Being accidentally attacked by a strong trainer's psychic pokemon and having my brain waves bent around, witnessing an almost case of assault on a gym leader, almost losing Bamb'o's pokemon…

"Oi! ARI!" a hyper voice whooped from behind me. I groaned.

"Sorry Auntie, Theo's here. I gotta go."

"You two stay together!" Auntie said hurriedly. "Nowtoch City has been on the news. Pickpockets and kidnappers."

"I have my pokemon, don't worry," I told her before hanging up.

I barely had time to react to the footsteps pounding the pavement behind me before Theo had pounced on me. I folded to the ground with a colossal cracking of joints.

"Wassup!" Theo yelled. Someone was excited… "It's been ages! What've you been up to? Got any new pokemon? Let's battle!"

"Just one second," I yelled back. You had to yell to get through to this kid, I understood Bamb'o's willingness to strain his vocal cords now. "I got something to give you first."

"Yeah! A present!" Theo screeched.

I fished one of the pokepods out of my pocket and sighed luxuriously as I felt the lifting of weight from my body. "Take it," I punted the item towards Theo, who leaped forward, missed, and landed on top of me on the ground.

"Shit," we said simultaneously as the pokepod went flying through the air.

Eletux scrambled forward with the eagerness of a small puppy and caught the pokepod in its mouth. I wiped figurative sweat off my figurative brow. Almost killed by Bamb'o, almost killed by Cameron. I was really living on the edge here.

"Anyway," Theo said, scooping up his pokepod and pressing buttons at lightning speed. "Like I was saying, we should battle. I got a stronger team now. Get ready to lose, Ari!"

I closed my eyes in exhaustion. "Go kitty," I grumbled, but kitty didn't want to fight either and curled up next to me. Neither of us moved for about ten seconds.

"Are you gonna FOREFEIT?!" Theo yelled in triumph.

I let out a tremendous yawn. "Kitty, get up. I'll carry you later." I reached out to give it a shove and felt pyrite's stony body on top of the little cat. I gave the shove. I gave a bigger shove. What the hell?! My eyes sprang open. Pyrite wasn't moving at all despite me putting all my strength into that push.

"Are you kidding?" I groaned in disbelief. No wonder kitty was ready to enter the afterlife. Pyrite must have weighed a ton! I pulled myself to a sitting position and used my feet to push pyrite off kitty's body. The cat seemed to purr in delight at the sudden release and practically bounced into the air as it stood up.

I pointed a finger at pyrite. "You're walking from now on." It scratched itself sheepishly.

"Damn," Theo said. I detected a slight hint of disappointment in his voice. "Whatever, go Barewl!" he yelled, the doubt gone as quickly as it had appeared.

"Kitty, use vine whip," I said with a yawn. Kitty was seriously OP by now and the Barewl was slain in three hits, having done extremely minimal damage. Theo's face was bright red. He knew his Eletux would have to pull a miracle to get him out of this one. I gave him an angelic smile.

"Ellie," he hollered, as passers-by shrank away from the quickly escalating tantrum. "Use defense curl!"

Despite its best efforts, Eletux was still weak to vine whip, and fainted after two hits. It couldn't even land a critical on kitty due to its ability, Battle Armour. No miracles for Theo today. See, OP.

I couldn't keep the corners of my mouth from turning up as Theo erupted into tears. I was as surprised as he was when he managed to stop his own tantrum about half a minute in. Actually, maybe it was just the piteous glances of the passers-by. Theo hated to be pitied, even though he probably merited it.

"I'm gonna keep training," he said angrily, pulling himself up to his full height, reaching my chin. "Next time you're gonna be begging me for mercy."

Theo ran off huffing to the pokemon centre and I put out a foot for kitty to fist-bump.

"That was pretty impressive," said a girl with dark blue hair from a nearby bench.

"Cheers," I said, raising my hand with a wave. I made sure my badge was at the right angle to glint and flash in the sunlight beating down on us.

"I'm Solana," she said, extending her hand. "I'm from a different region, called Zhery."

"I'm just from down the road," I said.

"Moki Town?" Solana perked up.

"Yep," I said, waiting for the tepid chortling to ensue. But Solana just grinned.

"I'm heading there to visit my cousin. But I don't have any pokemon… I was looking for someone to travel with."

I shrugged. "Whatever, come along then."

"Thanks!" Solana smiled happily and raised herself from the bench.

She chattered literally all the way back. All the way over the top of the cave (no way I was going back through there with this perfectly dolled up girl trailing me), all the way through Kevlar Town, and back through route 1. She chattered about herself, about Zhery, and about how much she loved the relaxed atmosphere and cheap prices in Tandor.

My only contribution to the conversation was a silent dying inside and the occasional break to fend off a wild pokemon.

"Well, here we are," I said, as we emerged from the woods.

"Perfect!" Solana said with a big beaming smile. "Here you go, I'll give you this as a thanks!" She handed me an egg.

"Err… awesome?" I said in confusion. What the fuck? Who knew how long this thing had been outside a fridge. It felt warm to me. I tossed it around in my hands. I was in the mood for Auntie's scrambled eggs.

"Oh no, be careful!" Solana said, stretching her arms out. "It's a pokemon egg – something will hatch from it if you keep it warm with your pokemon." I thought of pyrite keeping anything warm and smirked. "This random was handing them out at the airport in Belbeach, said he got lucky at the casino. But I'm not a trainer," Solana finished sadly.

"Well it was great to meet you," she said, turning to look up the hill towards Bamb'o's labs. "That's my cousin's house up there, so I'd better get going!"

My mouth dropped open. Solana was Bamb'o's cousin?! Top kek! "Lol," I was unable to stop myself from saying aloud. "Bamb'o? That's funny. I work for him."

"Cool! I'll tell him I met you then! What was your name again?"

"Ari."

"Awesome. See you later, Ari." And with a flounce Solana was off, her long blue hair swaying as she walked.

I headed home to Auntie, who gave me a hug. I sighed and let her give me a back rub as well. The poor old woman was lonely. Perhaps I should go catch her a pokemon and let her have it as a pet.

"So where are you headed next?" she asked me, pouring two cups of tea.

"I dunno," I said.

"Back to Nowtoch for more sightseeing? Or you can go the other way, to Burole Town." Auntie shuddered. What was it about Burole that was even worse than pickpockets and kidnappers?

"Drake's company is clearing the landslide on Monday." Drake, that old guy who hangs around at the bottom of the hill smoking all day, the one with the crush on Auntie. "I'll tell him to get a move on though," she continued severely, "if you want to go that way."

"It's all right, I'll just climb over the top. I got this pokemon that can bust rocks anyway."

I let pyrite out of its ball to show Auntie.

"Eugh!" she jumped a mile into the air, her joints creaking. "Put it away!"

I frowned. Did Auntie have a fear of rocks or something? Did this have something to do with my convoluted family history?

"Sorry," Auntie said, after pyrite was drawn back into its ball. "I've never liked rocks and mines very much after… You know."

I surrendered myself to listening to another of these stories. I sucked forcefully on the straw in my tea. "Your mother used to work in a nuclear power station, you know. It was near a uranium mine." I knew. I'd heard this part a million times before.

"The last time anyone saw her, she was down in that mine as part of a sister company tour… Then there was that horrible explosion at the power plant, and the mine entrance collapsed." Well, I hadn't heard this before. The loneliness was loosening Auntie's tongue. "Kellyn reduced his arms to shreds trying to dig through the rocks by himself," she continued, a tear coursing down her face. I looked away quickly. "He still hasn't got their full function back, you know? But his pokemon help him out."

I raised an eyebrow and felt kind of bad about wanting to beat Kellyn up, if the man was disabled. Like, that just seemed like a shitty thing to do. Then again, he had ditched me as a baby, so I still wanted to pay him back for that.

"They got through the blockage after two or three days, and half the miners were dead, but they never found Lucille's body." Auntie was crying in earnest now. I awkwardly reached over to pat her shoulder. Kitty meowed piteously from the kitchen. It was hungry.

"I'll just go feed the cat," I said. "Wipe your face." I pulled some tissues from the box on the mantelpiece.

So it turned out Burole was a mining town. Despite all Auntie had said, I couldn't contain my excitement. Maybe I was a terrible person for feeling no empathy towards Auntie's pathological fear, but I loved mines! The fact my mother died in one didn't really bother me, even though it was shocking news. People die in cars all the time, does that mean everyone should be too scared to drive?

"Bye Ari. Sorry for upsetting you," Auntie said with a sniffle. Me and kitty had both finished eating, so I was going to be on my way again. Off to Burole Town!

I passed by Drake, smoking at the bottom of the hill, on my way out east. "Hi Drake," I said.

"Off with ya!" Drake snapped, shooing me away. Oh, right. I'd almost forgotten my reputation in this stupid town.

"My Auntie is feeling sad. She could do with a visitor," I said.

Drake considered me carefully and nodded. "I'll see what I can do," he said. He stopped short of waving me off.


	6. Solana

I'd been in town about four hours by then, and I noticed it was starting to grow dark. Of course. How was it possible that layabout Ari was suddenly filled with this compulsion for eternal travel? I needed to sleep now and then as well!

Auntie says she's noticed something change in me. I'm not so sure though – have you noticed it?

I turned away from the road out of town and headed back towards the, like, one light in the entire town. That came, of course, from the local tavern.

The adults looked suspiciously at me as I pushed open the door with the dumb ass tinkering bell. I thought guiltily of my three fake IDs. I lifted my arms and flashed everyone an innocent smile, and sat myself down at an empty table with my kitty curled up on my lap.

There was free wifi here so I pulled out my phone and hit up Reddit for the first time in forever. I didn't feel like trolling today though, so I contributed legitimately to several conversations before logging off.

Ooh, drama in the corner. I turned my head towards what seemed to be a brewing argument in one of the booths. I licked my figurative lips.

"Solana! This is the perfect opportunity for your research! You can't let it go."

"Come on Ernest. I didn't simmer on the subway for two hours and almost die walking through the jungle just to listen to you tear down my love for my home region." Her hand was on her heart. I imagined feeling a similar way about Moki Town and just about spat out my orange juice.

"Nobody said anything about your patriotic allegiances. And I'm sure Ari didn't let you 'almost die'."

I gave kitty a belly scritchies and it purred happily. I fed it some orange juice.

"Well I'm going straight back home after Vinoville. And heaven help you if either you or Sheldon try to stop me again."

Bamb'o groaned and rubbed at his temples. "And if Inhore University really cuts your funding? Think of the loss to the Collective Knowledge of Mankind. Sounds like you and Sheldon are really on the brink of something big here, with your super conducivers."

"Super conductors. And there's nothing inhibitive about our sister lab arrangement. And I prefer the word 'Humanity', thank you Mr. Patriarchy."

"For fuck's sake."

Solana lifted and drained her large glass of beer. With her hair tied up in a bun, her blouse changed for a light navy jacket and a pair of reading glasses on, her entire aesthetic was transformed. I thought of the dolled up girl I didn't want to lead through a cave. This same girl now looked like she could dissolve walls with her mind.

I shrugged and finished off my orange juice. "Let's go home, kitty." I could have a drink back there. Auntie had plenty of cider in the basement, and she always felt too much pity about my tragic past to prevent me from drinking it.

Boom! A huge shudder propagated through the building and everyone grabbed at their coats and bags in terror.

"Earthquake!" Bamb'o yelled. "Get under the tables!"

His voice cut through the melee and people listened. They clambered underneath the big heavy wooden tables and huddled tight. My kitty draped itself over my back, which I found quite touching.

A slight sprinkling of plaster fell from the ceiling, like a dust waterfall, but the building stayed strong and the tremor died down.

"They're getting more frequent," someone said. No joke. It must be the new fracking licenses the cash-strapped government was handing out; we had a lot of oil here in the south.

"Use our taxes for something useful!" a drunk man yelled out and everyone shook their fists at the crumbling ceiling. "Reinforce our building codes!"

I yawned. That's when I noticed… kitty was back in battle stance. It had slid off my back and was now standing with eyes unseeing, the green fur on its back standing upright, tail twitching.

"Kitty?" I said, slightly scared.

Mrrrrrrow! An evil call emerged from kitty's throat and it didn't turn to look at me. Oh no.

"Bamb'o," I hissed. There was no response. It was too noisy and busy in here, with everyone clambering out from underneath their wooden shelters. I crawled over to Bamb'o's table, giving kitty a wide berth.

"Bamb'o," I said.

"Oh, hey…" Solana's eyes lit up when she saw me.

"What's up?" Bamb'o asked. "You shouldn't be in here this time of night, you know."

I rolled my eyes. I'm unhurt, thanks for asking.

"Look at my pokemon."

They looked at it. Bamb'o removed his sunglasses in shock and I noticed the darker shade of the eye circles. "When did this start?" Bamb'o asked.

"Just then, after the earthquake. But wait, you gotta hear this. A rogue ranger in Nowtoch City rounded up a bunch of pokemon this morning, brainwashed them, and they looked just like that."

"Criminal activity! In Moki Town!" Solana exclaimed.

"Well, that's really nothing new…" Bamb'o couldn't restrain himself from giving me a sideways glance as he said it. I gave him a radiant fake smile.

"No way," I said. "That ranger got arrested."

Bamb'o shrugged. "The rangers are well-funded. They never set bail high enough anyway. Remember the time I got grandma out on that larceny charge?"

Solana snorted. "Right, on your doctorate's allowance." They sniggered together. I cleared my throat and pointed to the bristle-furred beast.

"Sorry," Solana said.

"We need to go outside and check it out. It could be connected to the earthquake – perhaps that was a pokemon's doing."

"With what for protection?" Bamb'o countered, pointing at the deranged cat.

"Don't you have more specimens, up in your lab?" Solana said irritatingly.

"What about the death magnet at your lab three hundred miles away? That'll work just as well," Bamb'o snapped back. Wow, this guy had a wit I'd never seen used when he was talking to us children.

Another tremor was starting up, and everyone crawled back underneath the tables in anticipation… But rather than growing in intensity, the tremor seemed to be producing a lot of white noise.

I stood up, ignoring Bamb'o's protesting pulls at my sleeves and looked out of the tavern windows. I gasped.

There, at the helm of a massive earth-moving vehicle, were Auntie and Drake!

"Out of my way, you self-entitled sack of liberal policies!" Auntie shouted, waving her fist.

The heavy truck caused the walls of the tavern to shake as it passed by. At the last moment, a figure dressed in that same discoloured ranger uniform broke their stance and ran out of the path of the big bulldozer, heading for the path out of town.

Unable to help myself, I erupted in a cheer. Others who had stood up to watch also started to cheer, and soon a chorus of "she's a jolly good fellow" had started up amongst the drunken patrons.

Bamb'o shook his head as we watched a large Laissure run back to the arms of its terrified trainer on the street outside. So that's what had caused the earthquake. Kitty trotted over and wrapped itself back round my legs.

"But that's impossible!" Bamb'o said in a hoarse whisper. "Ranger styluses shouldn't work on trainer pokemon!"

"Well isn't the answer obvious," Solana said in a 'dur brain' voice. "I swear, living in this town has dumbed you right down."

"It's the happy hour specials," Bamb'o complained. "Tell me what you're thinking."

"They weren't using a capture styler! It was something new!"

Bamb'o scratched his balding head. "Well I guess… It could be a modification on the existing."

"Same thing," Solana waved dismissively. "All we have to do is catch up with one of these people and find out what they're using."

"You think there's more than one?!" Bamb'o exclaimed in horror.

I rolled my eyes. "Come on, pops. Keep up. One got arrested in Nowtoch City this morning…?"

"You keep up, whippersnapper," Bamb'o said back, replacing his sunglasses. "I said they could've got bailed out."

Clap back. I pursed my lips and considered Bamb'o, impressed.

"If we're going to try to fight these people," Solana said, completely ignoring our exchange, "We need to have some way to protect our pokemon from the effect of their styluses."

She seemed lost in thought. Bamb'o leaned over and mock whispered: "the scientist is thinking." I smelled the alcohol on his breath. How much had he had to drink?!

"Okay, I got it," Solana said, her mind returning to the same plane as her body. "I'll leave for Vinoville tomorrow. Sorry, Ernest, but we have a crisis on our hands! I know Sheldon is working on large scale extraction of a new material from Tracton fangs to help process rare earths for our magnets. It works by selectively drawing certain elements towards it with fantastic success. That's how Tracton can rearrange its body chemistry so effectively to give it a speed boost."

"You lost me at 'extraction'. You know I like simple words, Lana."

"I was doing some research back in Inhore City, and found the material also works to draw subatomic particles. I wonder if it can draw the signals of the stylus towards it and away from the brains of our pokemon."

"Cool," I said.

Bamb'o looked at me in consternation. "You understood what she just said?"

I smirked. Time for my own clap back. "And you call yourself a scientist."

"Well we all know ecology isn't a real science," Solana said with a wicked glint in her eyes. 

"Guys, that's not fair. While Lana's sitting there irradiating herself in a basement I get to enjoy nature's beauty and have butterflies sit on my eyelids."

Solana and I looked in horror at each other. Five, maybe six glasses?

"We all know you and Sheldon are just in love with each other," Bamb'o grumbled.

Solana raised herself to her full height. "What did you say? My love for science and country come first and foremost! Shut your blasphemous mouth!"

Solana had gone bright red. So it was true. There was something going on there. I waggled my eyebrows.

"Come on, Lana," Bamb'o whined. "Accept Vinoville's offer! You guys can be together and it'll be much easier to conduct your research without three hundred miles between you."

"Never!" Solana snapped. "You just watch, we'll have industrial production of Tractonite going before you know it!" And with that, she stood up and swept out of the tavern, heading back up the hill towards the lab and Bamb'o's house, where I presumed she was staying.

Bamb'o sighed and rubbed at his temples, but missed and ended up rubbing his eyeballs.

"Sheldon is the gym leader of Vinoville Town," he told me. "You'll challenge him for your fourth badge eventually."

Yes please, I would like to continue my league challenge, thanks for asking.

"Him and Solana are perfect together. Nobody in town likes them. Solana cos she's a foreigner, Sheldon because he's just weird. They're so in love, you don't understand…" A tear fell from Bamb'o's eye. "I just ship it so hard."

My jaw dropped. "You shouldn't ship people in real life, Professor."

"This'll just be our secret, you and me eh, Ari?" Bamb'o said, his eyes bright with tears and alcohol. I smirked to myself. It's okay, I drank plenty myself so it wasn't like I was being defiled by being exposed to this display.

"Go home, get some rest. Get out of town and head to Burole tomorrow," Bamb'o continued. "In case that ranger comes back. I don't want you or your pokemon getting hurt."

"Yessir," I nodded. So, time to rest and leave for Burole tomorrow. I'd be seeing inside a real mine this time tomorrow. Awesome!


	7. Amy - Burole

I set off early the next morning. The first task was to pick my way through the dredges of landslide which Drake's machinery had left behind. I crushed the soft-looking pieces under my feet with a satisfying crunch.

I sniffed the air. Yep, there it was, I thought, my eyes rolling as far back in my head as you'd have to go to find the memory of when I was last at the beach. I gazed ahead of me at the stretch of sandy coast, the energetic holidaymakers in glaringly bright bathers already out on the beach despite it being… oh, right. I almost forgot not everybody in the universe wakes up at noon.

I rubbed my head and shielded my eyes from the piercing light of day. I was turning into Bamb'o.

Kitty enjoyed rolling around in the sand. I practised rolling my eyes in time to kitty's tumbles and worsened my headache.

"Ari!" the annoying little girl with the lame route 1 pokemon shrieked at me from underneath a palm tree. The plant's fronds swayed in the beautiful warm breeze, their swishing augmented by the harmonious crashing of distant waves. I groaned so loudly I gave myself a stitch.

"It's been ages since I saw you! Let's see who's stronger now!"

"Fine," I growled, my head pounding. I would have to give up the drinking. I was almost fifteen, but I suppose it still wasn't healthy.

"Go! Aveden!" the kid hollered, and I winced as the sound waves battered my ear drums.

"Kitty, get out there." Meow! Meow! Oh shit, did I forget to feed the cat this morning…

"Even better," I grumbled. "You can eat the bird if you win."

"Hey!" the kid squared up her shoulders and drew herself up to her full height. "That's not nice!" Well, I admired her guts if anything. For such an annoying child she had a metric tonne of balls.

The child's arms were still folded. An even smaller boy ran up behind her and pounced on her backpack, giggling hysterically, dragging the zips open and causing a literal metric tonne of balls to spill out. I looked on in awe. There were at least ten.

"Oi Henry! Go away! I'm trying to have a pokemon battle!" she shrieked.

"Cheater, cheater pants on the heater," Henry hollered back. "You're only allowed six pokemon with you."

"Schooled!" I hooted with laughter.

"Nuh," she said, shaking her head vigorously. "They're empty, you know? Mum's taking us to the forest to pick berries tomorrow and I want to catch Chicoatl. It's so cute!"

She proceeded to start making little chirpy noises which I assumed were a sad attempt at Chicoatl's cry.

"Amy, that's lame," Henry yelled. "This is how Chicoatl goes." He started making dinosaur noises. Amy (so that was the child's name!) chirped back. I cleared my throat and pointed at our waiting pokemon.

"I want to wait till I'm 18 for my first orgy," I said pointedly.

"Kitty," I ordered. "Use… Argh!" I really needed a drink of water and a Panadol. "The one with the claws. Metal claw."

Aveden managed to do some damage on kitty with air cutter, which surprised me, but I was guess these steel types' resistance specialty was physical attacks. Steel pokemon can take a battering but there's other more subtle ways to destroy them. Corrosion, heat, flash freezing, ground vibration… or a good dosing of ethanol, I thought sourly.

Aveden was taken out with three rounds of metal claw, but kitty looked extremely bedraggled by then and frantically tried to comb its fur back into some semblance of order.

"Wait!" I puffed as Amy raised her Kinetmunk's pokeball. "Let me switch out."

"Come on!" Amy shrieked. "You play Switch? I thought you were the toughest trainer in town!" Did Amy just tell me to grow a pair?! I growled. Fine.

"Go, Kinetmunk!" Amy screeched, glowing with triumphant energy like the tube of radium that finally killed Marie Curie. I reached into my bag, and as Kinetmunk loosed Charge, fed kitty a super potion.

Amy's jaw hit the ground. I smirked. "It isn't very nice to pick on the poor kids," Amy said with a pout. "Not everyone has a rich Great Auntie."

I scowled. "What ya gonna do about it, Engels?"

But anyway, I switched kitty out after letting it absorb a thundershock and let Amy try to wear down pyrite. It was a very fair fight. I was falling behind in levels, thanks to my glowing work ethic.

"Good fight!" Amy said after I narrowly beat her, handing me her pocket money. I took it, feeling guilty.

Headed back home for a quick lunch after that, and to let Auntie massage my kitty back to health.

In the afternoon I made good progress, helped by the fact that pyrite evolved after I razed a bug catcher's team. No longer a little ball of stone and steel, pyrite was taking on the form of a horse-like animal. It was now about half a metre in height and my spirits were high. If it evolved again I would probably be able to ride it, I realised with delirious glee.

Not gonna lie, I was disappointed to make it to Burole Town. I'd been expecting mines and explosives and flotation plants and dirt, instead what I found was beds of flowers and a school full of children eager to diss my Moki accent.

"I'm looking for the local mines," I said, addressing who I hoped was a teacher in the yard.

"You mean the gym? Eh, you're a good twenty years too late to watch rock getting blasted," the man said mournfully. He pointed towards a street branching off from the main road.

Go figure, Auntie had got it wrong. It wasn't like she'd been anywhere beside the house and the tavern since the stone ages anyway. Dragging my feet on the extraordinarily clean pavers, I trudged up to and opened the (non-automatic) door of the gym.

I gave my eyes a second to adjust to the darkness, my old friend.

"Welcome," said the gym guy by the door, his face illuminated creepily by the computer screen. "ID card?" I held out my ID card to be scanned. "Knock yourself out," he said with a big fake customer service grin and waved into the blackness beyond.

I looked around. Okay, so this was a real excavated cave, but its walls had been polished and the floors concreted to be more accommodating to tourists. The gym chain was becoming a franchise. I said a silent prayer for the industrial age.

My footsteps echoed from the ceiling of the cavern as I made my way down to the arena. Some fake stalactites hung from the ceiling for atmosphere.

I whipped the trainers in the gym with their poison type pokemon, though some had those little lizards I'd seen in the cave outside Nowtoch, which meant I actually had to try as they knew Bulldoze by this point. I thought amusedly of Auntie as pyrite was steadily shattered by the tremors.

At least the light-footed kitty seemed to have better luck on shaking ground.

Several trips to the pokemon centre later, I was ready to face the gym leader. He posed grandly with a mining pick but it looked too clean to be anything more than a prop.

"Hey, I'm Davern," he said to me with a laugh. "You look a little disappointed, I have to say. Expecting more of a ventilation fan, whirring machinery, black lung kind of atmosphere?"

"I guess," I replied.

Davern laughed again, a manly, gravelly laugh. "Believe you me, I'm less than inspired as well. But OH&S regulations, you know? We'd never be able to let challengers into a real mine, so I have to make do with this. Tell you what – if you beat me I'll give you a personal tour of my old workplace, the copper mine up in the rainforest."

"Sick," I said. Davern seemed appreciative of meeting someone who didn't make awed gestures at the cavern and want to take pictures with the stalactites. A real miner, I imagined myself, and felt a small touch of pride. I was definitely going to win, unless he had the evolved form of the lizard.

But he didn't, and slowly and steadily I wore away his poison pokemon with neutral-damage attacks. They were barely able to do any damage on my steelies and I felt Davern starting to regret his life choices before his Tofurang even reached red health.

"It's okay," I said reassuringly. "I have three fake IDs if you need to pass me off as an adult."

Davern sighed and passed a beefy hand over his face. "A promise is a promise," he said. "Let me take your pokepod number, and I'll give you a call first thing next month. I've used up all my paid leave for November."

The sun was shining when I emerged from the gym but I didn't even care. I embraced the stinging in my eyes with an uncharacteristic optimism for the future.

And so I headed north from Burole Town in even better spirits, two shiny badges on my chest, a mine tour on the horizon, and ready to beat up Kellyn, good arms or not.


	8. Comet Cave

I'd only made it past one puny wooden bridge, and a Gentleman Sr. Goldkorn on the bridge who claimed to be out for a walk but really just stood there waiting to ambush passing trainers for a battle, when drama struck once again.

At least my hangover had well and truly subsided by the mid afternoon – I was ready to face my first world problems in good humour.

I put away my pokepod which had just been graced with Sr. Goldkorn's number (he seemed keen to telemarket about some trainers' magazine subscription) and turned to face the figure on the little cliff above me.

"Hey Theo," I said with a resigned wave and a nod. He jumped about a mile into the air and swivelled around, eyes glittering with a mesmerising zest for life.

"About time!" Theo yelled, bouncing up and down like an electron in a radio antenna. "I've had to spend all these days without someone weak to beat up."

Great to see you too.

"Anyway, I'm not just standing here looking at the ocean," Theo said with a scowl. "There's some fat guy up ahead who won't let me go into the cave."

"Why?"

"A dangerous situation," Theo mocked his voice.

"That's helpful." I rolled my eyes.

"But he'll change his mind if he sees two of us together. Come on, hurry up," he waved, his arm blurring into the fabric of space-time as it oscillated. I dragged myself up the hill and onto the cliff, from which rose a large outcrop of rock featuring the cave entrance. Okay, that was cool, I was keen to explore more of the subterrain.

"You again!" the fat man huffed in Theo's direction as we approached. "I already told you, there's a situation here. You can't pass through!"

"What's happened?" I asked.

The man took a badge out of his pocket and flashed it at us. "Classified information, kiddo. Rangers are investigating a security breach. We don't want anyone tattling to the press."

"We won't grass, sir," Theo said. "We just wanna get through to Belbeach so we can become pokemon champions." I rolled my eyes.

"Wait…" The officer's expression changed. "You're trainers? In that case… You might be of help."

I examined Theo's chest. "Where are your badges," I hissed.

"Don't wanna get them dirty," Theo said back.

I looked at him in disbelief. Was he joking? Why would anyone give up the opportunity to display numerous superficial tokens of superiority on their body for all the world to see? You never had to do as much work if people thought you were better to start with!

"Come with me. You'll see what I mean," the officer continued.

The man squeezed through the entrance and Theo's face lit up.

We crunched through the spattering of rock dust on the cave floor. I tripped over a Dunsparce. Theo's Eletux had to be withdrawn into its ball as the dust was interfering with its circuits.

"Kitty," I hissed. A pitiful meowing kept pace some distance behind me. It was excessively dark in this cave, like walking into the abyss. With Eletux's sparks gone, I was more or less being directionally guided by Theo's excited breathing.

Eventually I dropped back and rode on my Dearewl. It only protested slightly. Kitty jumped up as well and swept its grassy tail happily over the rockiest parts of pyrite's head, making it bray in annoyance. I yawned and sat back to enjoy the ride.

By and by, we arrived at a small room carved into the rock to the right of the main passage. Harsh electric strip lighting assaulted my eyes. Inside, sixteen rangers wearing the discoloured bluish uniform sat at a round table piled high with scientific equipment, surrounded by a veritable army of Chyinmunk, Barewl, Birbie, all in battle stance… It was like some twisted wonder trade panorama.

"We think weak pokemon are more easily corrupted by the signals they are sending out," whispered our guide. "That means your pokemon over level 20 should be unaffected. But we understand they are developing more advanced styluses which will eventually be able to control all pokemon, regardless of level."

"Why are we here?" Theo said loudly.

"Shh!" the man hissed. "I want to steal the stylus so the real rangers can find some way to protect pokemon against this technology. There have been many attacks all over Tandor in recent times. You wouldn't happen to have any leads on such research?"

I almost opened my mouth. Almost. But something seemed way suss about this whole situation. If he was a ranger, why didn't he have his own pokemon to fight? Shouldn't he have called for backup? He could be undercover, but he didn't look strong enough to have passed the physical.

"No, sorry," I said.

He sighed. "Look, I'm sorry to have dragged you into all this. We don't even know who these people are or what they want. But you should be able to handle these level 3 or 4 pokemon, right? While you distract them, I will go in to steal the stylus."

Me and Theo looked at each other. What was the worst thing that could happen? We'd get scammed out of a bit of PP and have to go back to Burole to rest up. I shrugged. "Okay."

The man pushed open the door and ushered us in. Responding to their programming, the hoarde immediately looked upwards with glassy eyes and began to attack. Their weak scratches and pecks did very little damage to our pokemon though, and the room soon looked like a Salvador Dali, just with Chyinmunks instead of clocks.

The faux rangers all wore masks. Upon our entry, they grabbed most of the equipment from the table with astonishing, practised efficiency, and started to fan out and escape the room from four or five different exits hidden in the walls while we were preoccupied trying to wade through the pokemon tide. There was a scuffle from one of the corridors but it died down very quickly.

After Theo and I had beaten up the hoarde, we cautiously went to investigate the different passages. Each was empty and ended in a locked door. So that was that. There was no sign of the rangers or the officer.

"Guess we keep going through the cave then," Theo said, not to be defeated in spirits though he had hoped for a dramatic heist. "Rochfale Town on the other side has a PC."

"Come on pyrite," I yelled, and it loped over to me from where it had been chewing on the metal ground supports. I still didn't know what pyrite ate, but it never demanded food like kitty.

Before we could take one step further, a resounding crash echoed through the darkness of the main passage and Theo flew into the air with a shriek. I squinted into the gloom.

The ground and walls began to shake. "Uh… Uh, Ari!" Theo's voice quavered. "Ari, we've gotta get out of here!"

I took a step further down the passage. There was something coming out of the darkness, my old friend…

"ARI!" Theo screamed as the walls began to cave behind me from the worsening tremors. He turned and fled, but I could still hear him shouting frantically for me from further back. I thought of the irony if I were also to die in a tunnel collapse.

A space-rending roar erupted from the creature I had been certain was coming towards me. But the roar was nothing compared to its appearance, which sent shudders down my spine.

A two-headed lizard, but it didn't look normal. It was shrouded in a creepy green aura, like a computer screen with the wrong gamma settings. And its eyes stared emptily at me, the pupils dilated so far nothing else could be seen.

"Help!" the fat officer screeched, running in front of the glowing pokemon. "Help me!"

My worst nightmare – the evolved form of the lizard, and two lives were at stake. How would I respond to fear? Fight or flight? Well, neither and both.

That's right, I was going to get someone else to do the fighting for me.

"Go, kitty!" I yelled, pushing the little cat forwards with a slight feeling of guilt. It mewled piteously as the green aura seemed to flicker out from the dragon and singe its fur.

"Use metal claw!"

But somehow, kitty didn't respond. It was now level 24, so beyond the range of the corrupt stylus. But… I looked down at my pokepod in horror. The dragon we were fighting was level 25… and yet it was still obviously rampaging in battle stance.

"Kitty! Can you hear me?!" I yelled into its ears. Mrrrrrrow! Oh no. Kitty was starting to glow as well. Here it was – my very own personal demonstration of Stylus 2.0. The weak stylus hadn't had this glowing affect on the pokemon under its influence, but I guessed harsher measures were needed for stronger pokemon.

"Kitty!" I hollered. It was no use. Kitty's connection to me was keeping it from turning to attack me, but it still wouldn't respond to my commands. The walls shook with even more fervour and the officer curled up in the foetal position on the ground.

"Ari!" Theo continued to yell. "Ari!" But his voice was getting louder… "Ari, I called Bamb'o!"

"Ari!" a different, but also familiar voice. Solana! "Ari, take this! Quickly!" Solana threw a beeping device towards me, and it passed the weakness in the walls a mere second before they collapsed, blocking the passage between me and the exit.

I picked up the device. But really, there was no need for me to even do that. Already the green glow from both kitty and the wild dragon were subsiding, and life was returning to their eyes. The tremors started to quieten down. I looked down at the object in my hand – it was glowing bright green now, having absorbed the effect of the radiation.

"Kitty, all right, use metal claw now!" The dragon lizard was still unsettled from its escapade, and it slashed out in defense, but kitty soon had it battered enough from metal claw that it slunk back into the soft ground from which it had risen.

The officer was still curled up on the ground.

"All right, you can get up now," I said, nudging him with my foot.

He tried to brush it off when he was back on his feet. "Man, that was a close one!" he said, laughing as coolly as he could manage. "Really thought we were gonna be goners!"

He examined the device in my hands. "Oh, what's that?"

I took a punt that he hadn't seen. "It's a light, so I can see what I'm doing."

His eyes narrowed. "Kid, you're lying, right? I saw that green glow coming from the Terlard just then. Now you'd better tell me what's going on, or Kellyn is going to hear about this."

I shrugged. I wasn't afraid of no Kellyn. "I told you. It's just a light."

His hands were empty. I taken it he'd gotten a good ass whooping when trying to take the stylus off the ranger, and he wasn't so keen to try for another snatch.

"Kellyn is going to hear about this personally," he spat. And with that, he trundled off down the passage towards the exit at Rochfale.

"Ari!" Bamb'o's voice. "Ari, are you okay?!" They were still waiting on the other side of the cave-in.

"I'm fine!" I called. "I just follow the path to get to Rochfale, right?"

"Yes, you're almost there," Bamb'o replied.

"Not fair!" Theo shrieked. "I wanna get to Rochfale too!"

I imagined Bamb'o rubbing at his temples. He probably still had his sunglasses on. "Okay Theo, I will fly you on my Pajay."

My jaw dropped. No way. This was the hero's thanks I got, having to walk through the terrorist dungeon while Theo got a free ride? I could hear Theo whooping with delight.

I consoled myself by remembering Theo wouldn't be able to train while flying so I would be super OP against him next time we met.


	9. Rochfale - Route 7

I made it out of the cave safely. There was no sign of the rogue rangers from the Terlard point onwards. I still had the device in my hands, and I stored it away safely in the innermost compartment of my bag. The green glow had died down after a few minutes so I assumed it was safe.

So this was the product of Solana and Sheldon's research. Cool.

The route leading up to Rochfale Town was, I begrudged myself to admit, beautiful. Even though it was near the end of spring, the trees here were covered with foliage of various striking reds and yellows as well as green. I beat up a couple of campers frolicking in the long grass.

I was stinking rich by now, with all the kids I was thrashing, so I splashed out on the penthouse room at the PC for the night.

I gazed contemplatively over the mountainside from my floor-to-ceiling windows, which rain showers battered from time to time, and considered where I was in life. I'd come a long way from trolling in my bedroom back in Moki. Kitty curled up beside the fireplace, rock horse sleeping in the darkness underneath the bed. Pokemon egg lying reticently in my bag. It had better not be a Birbie to hatch from that after I'd carried it for so long.

I watched from my lofty abode as Bamb'o and Theo landed, on a flaming bird with long red streamer feathers trailing behind its head. The bird shook itself uncomfortably in the rain. Theo headed into the pokemon centre too, while Bamb'o headed north to a large workshop-like building further up the mountain.

I did think it strange when I checked out the next day that Bamb'o was still here. He'd missed a night of drinking back at the Moki Tavern, which was uncharacteristic. I caught sight of his balding head to the right as I walked west out of town.

"Hey Bamb'o!" I called out, waving.

"Ari!" He threw his arms up into the air and started to jog towards me. He wasn't even puffed. Wow, Bamb'o worked out?

"It might just be fate you're still here," he said. "There's a crisis at my friend's lab. She needs the help of strong trainers."

"What about you and your Pajay?" I asked sassily.

"You'll see," Bamb'o said cryptically, and I had no choice but to follow him up to the lab on the hill. I was panting before we got half way, so I sat down to ride on pyrite's back.

"Ernest!" a woman called out as we entered the lab through hissing automatic doors. "Did I say you could leave?"

"I saw Ari down by the PC," Bamb'o whined. "They're my assistant. They have an Orchynx which I bred myself."

"My condolences," the woman said with a wink, and shook my hand. "My name's Lily Cypress. I'm glad to hear you have a grass type – we suffered a break-in from the local fishermen's club and need someone to go fight the bastards."

"It's a funding dispute," Bamb'o explained. "Funding for the marine biology lab was cut in favour of Lily's research. Now it's harder for the fishermen to accurately track the movements of Tubjaw."

This was hilarious.

"So you see…" Bamb'o pointed helplessly at his Pajay, whose flames burned brightly out of the rain.

"Basically," Lily said. "We need you to go retrieve our Pokemon Speech Translator from their leader, Luke. It's very important for our research."

I looked doubtfully at them. I mean, I could've been well on the way to Belbeach by now, and I was looking forward to confronting Kellyn with my little pokemon destroyers.

"We'll pay you $50, and you can keep the prize money from the battles," Bamb'o said in desperation. I smiled in satisfaction.

"Aye, right away," I said, giving them a salute. I headed back down the hill to the ramshackle fishermen's club and pushed open the rickety door.

"Hello kid!" boomed a man in dirty overalls at the counter. He put down the rod he was attaching a reel back onto. "How can I help you today? Are you after some bait? Or perhaps the latest model Good Rod? We're giving them away for free with any purchase $30 or over!"

I was more into fishing for reactions than fishing for pokemon. "I'll take the Pokemon Speech Translator, please," I said angelically. The fisherman's face clouded over with anger and suspicion.

"A spy," he hissed. "Boys, get out here!" he shouted. "Lily's sent out a recon agent."

"Recon?" I tutted. "Nah, I'm here to fight."

"Out to the arena then!" the fisherman boomed, and I followed him towards the court behind the clubhouse. It featured a large pond with pedestals here and there for the trainers to stand on.

"Bring 'em out," the fisherman sneered. "Let's see how you like a dose of Luke's hydro power!" He lifted a pokeball and lobbed it into the water, and a coil-like creature, half snake, half fish, emerged. My pokepod identified it as the coveted Tubjaw.

"Go, kitty!" I yelled, and flung kitty down from its perch around my neck. Kitty fell in the water with a splash, but its light, plant-matter-like fur allowed it to float on the surface.

I climbed onto one of the pedestals while Luke sauntered onto the opposite one.

"Tubjaw, Aqua Jet!" Luke ordered.

"Kitty, mega drain!" I countered. As Tubjaw slammed into kitty's belly, kitty extended the bulb on its tail and absorbed the life energy of the fish, which flapped around in pain in the water. Kitty's bulb grew larger and whiter. At full health, it was close to opening into a flower.

It was a one-hit KO. Luke was forced to retrieve his fainted Tubjaw, teeth gritted. "See how you like this one then! Go, Frynai!"

Okay, this was more interesting. The fish had sharp steel fins. I should get one of these – maybe I'd been too quick to cast off the Good Rod offer.

"Frynai, Iron Tail!" Luke boomed.

"Mega drain!" I yelled again. It took a bit longer this time, but Frynai was eventually defeated, kitty regaining half the damage it took with each attack.

Fisherman Luke was smirking by the time he got out his last pokeball and climbed down from the pond pedestal. I gripped kitty from the water and put it down on dry land as well. "Not so easy now, hey? Get a taste of this Cocaran!"

Oh no. I groaned. A grass-ground type. We were both neutral on each other. I settled in for the long battle.

Cocaran used Sand Tomb, and kitty continued milking Mega Drain's PP. Cocaran had some wicked defensive skills and seemed unaffected by each attack, and Sand Tomb bled off more of kitty's HP each round.

"Out of PP," my pokepod said in a robotic voice. I groaned. We were both down to about half HP by this time.

"Kitty, metal claw," I ordered. Kitty's steel claws made barely a dent on Cocaran's hard, hairy body, but this had the advantage of sharpening the claws and raising kitty's attack.

Eventually, with one last scratch and freed from the swirling sand tomb, kitty pierced through Cocaran's skin and white milk started to run out. Kitty lapped it up happily.

"Gross, come on," I said as Luke sourly withdrew Cocaran back into its pokeball.

"Fine, you win," Luke said with a sulky expression. His mates were bantering amongst themselves and I imagined Luke would really be hearing it from them later.

"Take the PST," he snapped and deftly threw it at me. "We'll just have to diversify outside Tubjaw. Then we'll be stronger than ever, you'll see."

He caught sight of my pokepod. "Wait," he said, grievances seemingly cast aside. "Is that a pokepod? Sick, I have one too. Let's register each other, then I can really beat you up later down at the beach. My pokemon always perform better there."

I took down Fisherman Luke's number.

"Don't think this makes us friends," Luke said, pointing at his eyes then pointing at me. "Now get out."

I got out, the little bell rattling behind me as the door slammed shut.

On the trek back to Lily Cypress's lab, I turned on the PST for shits and giggles. I pointed the device at kitty. "You need to wash your neck more carefully," kitty said. "It's starting to smell up here."

"That's because you're coiled around it all the time with your sweaty fur," I clapped back.

I turned off the PST.

"Ari, thank you!" Cypress lifted her hands in gratitude and scooped up the PST while Bamb'o extracted his wallet with a tired sigh.

"You're heading onto Belbeach City then?" Cypress continued warmly. "I've got something that should help you out. This here is an Exp. Share for training weak pokemon. You'll really need to level up for the third gym."

"Sick, thanks," I said. I reached out my hand and Bamb'o put $50 in it.

And so equipped with my new gift, I headed out west for real this time, and made my merry way down the red-tree lined route, also known as Pahar Hills. I saw one or two of the little fire birds, but I assumed it was named after the colour of the trees. There were way more Pahar over at Sr. Goldkorn's capitalism lair.

Other kid trainers were out camping or hiking, and I also battled a number of fishermen, bug catchers, and a class of trainer dressed in brand-name sweatpants who liked to call themselves 'cool trainers'. Most of them weren't so cool after kitty whipped their pokemon with its life-absorbing tail.

No drama hit me all the way down Pahar Hills, through another quick cave pass and to the coastal flats leading up to Belbeach City, though kitty did reach level 28 and evolve after we battled a youngster lounging out on the flats who trolled me with the internet vocab my mouth used to be full of.

At first I was shocked. My adorable little grass kitten was gone, in its place stood a towering steel-armoured wild cat which growled and roared as it flicked its scythe-like tail. But when it caught sight of me it lay down on its back and flipped over for a belly scritchies, so it was still my kitty.

At least I didn't have to carry it now, though to be honest (though I wouldn't admit this to anyone else) I was going to miss my living scarf.

I caught up with Theo on the fringes of Belbeach City.

"Yo!" I yelled. "Theo, how was your fruitless excursion? Was that Pajay flight worth it?" I sauntered up to him with my Metalynx clacking along beside me.

"You bet," Theo said stubbornly and folded his arms. "You're still not going to win. I now have four pokemon. You'll run out of PP before you can put a dent in us."

"Come at me then," I said with a lazy grin. "Come at the beast."

Pyrite was more or less fainted from previous battles, and I was too lazy to walk back to the rest house, but I'd been spot on with my predictions. Metalynx was a literal wall. Theo's smaller pokemon bounced off it having inflicted the most trivial of minor injuries.

"Argh!" Theo erupted. "It's not fair! Well, I'm gonna make you pay! Go, Chimical!"

The fire-poison type came out of its ball with a curiously digital cry. That was a nice little thing, but I'd dedicated myself to the world of steel by now and I wasn't going to betray the motherland.

"Kitty, use Slash!" I ordered. Before kitty could drag its heavy armour into motion, Chimical opened its mouth and let a nasty fiery Ember burn and melt kitty's face. Meow! In times of crisis it still meowed like a little kitten. I reached forward to pat its back comfortingly, taking care to avoid the scythe tail.

Taking a moment to compose itself, kitty pounced forward with its colossal steel claws and raked a critical hit down Chimical's back. One hit KO. Theo burst into tears. "Eletux is never gonna be able to win now!" he bawled. "I don't wanna send her out just to let you hurt her."

I was taken aback. "Don't back down, Theo. It'll be good experience. Come on, I'll let you KO my Dearewl okay, then you can grow it a level?" I looked at myself in shock and horror and staggered backwards. What the everloving fuck did I just say? Was I Theo's parent? It was not my job to nurse the sensitive feelings of this child!

Theo also stared at me in slight alarm. "Um… No, I don't wanna. Okay, I'll finish the battle!"

I was still reeling from my horrifying display of compassion. Thankfully, kitty seemed none the wiser and cheerfully loosed a mega vine whip to take out Eletux and grow to level 30.

Theo held his chin high though his eyes were full of tears. "Next time," he yelled. "Next time I'll evolve Chimical and incinerate you. And I will use Ellie to drown your horse."

"I look forward to it," I replied with a bow and Theo ran off snivelling to the rest house. That was more like it.

Little did either of us know that very shortly, a new unexpected addition to my team would throw a spanner in the works of Theo's carefully crafted plan. Oblivious, I continued north towards Belbeach – I was super ready to confront Kellyn and have him grovel underneath the glint of my shiny new badges!


	10. Kellyn

"Only thirty cents a kilo!" a man pushing a cart of watermelons hawked at me as I made my way down the wide paved road leading into Belbeach City from the flats.

I looked down at kitty, who was panting profusely under the midday sun.

Auntie was always yelling at me about vitamins. I handed a fiver to the farmer in exchange for one of the fruits. He searched around for change.

"No problem, keep it," I waved dismissively with a bourgie wrist flick, my wallet spilling notes into my pocket as I tried to stuff it back.

I brought the small melon down on kitty's scythe tail. It split open with a satisfying crunch. The beast team gathered around for a refreshing snack.

"Say," I said casually while slurping up some juice running down my chin. "You wouldn't happen to know where the Ranger HQ round here is?"

The seller scratched his head. "It's way out east on the other side of town – you can catch the B16 bus that way. I'm sure the fare is no problem for you." He nodded pointedly at my pocket. I hurriedly bent to pick up two $50 notes which had fallen to the ground.

"I think I'll just ride on my horse," I said, pointing at my horse. I didn't fancy trying to herd my Metalynx onto a bus, and these days it threw a hissy fit every time I tried to put it in a pokeball.

The seller shrugged. "To each their own. Well follow this here road straight down, and turn left after five blocks. You'll be able to see the big neon sign."

"Cheers," I said, hopping onto pyrite, which subsequently began to plod along down the side of the wide bitumen road.

Cars honked at me as they swerved past. Well, excuse me.

"Get your cat under control!" one woman screamed out of her vehicle, her voice fading as she sped away. Oops. So it wasn't me they were beeping at… I looked guiltily over my shoulder to see kitty frolicking and chasing scuttling Cocarans into the middle of the road.

"Kitty!" I bellowed. "Keep the fuck up!"

"Such language from a child!" a man screamed out of his vehicle, shaking his fist.

"Eyes on the road," I shouted back, flipping the bird. I was getting hot and sweaty again.

It was too peaceful as the car puttered out of earshot. Where the hell was my Metalynx?

After pyrite and I headed back about fifty metres we found it, stuck in a fence with paws outstretched grasping a shrieking Pahar.

Kitty rode with me on horseback the rest of the way to the Ranger HQ.

I let the air conditioned air slide over my skin as the automatic doors hissed open and sighed with exaggerated luxury. We dragged ourselves off of pyrite and its joints decompressed with a symphony of cracking.

"You shouldn't let that cat ride on Dearewl. You'll hurt it," a ranger in crisp green uniform said to me with a disapproving glance.

"Hear that, sonny," I said to kitty and jabbed it with a finger.

"Oh man, you look like you could do with a drink," another ranger said, catching sight of me. "Come with me. Bring your pokemon as well." I perked up and followed after him.

A bowl was put out for kitty and pyrite to drink from and I was given a glass. Unfortunately it contained only normal water, not Russian water.

"You're a trainer then," the ranger said as I drank up. "Here for the third gym?"

"Yep," I nodded. "Though I came here first to see Kellyn."

The ranger considered me with squinty eyes. "Do you have an appointment? He's very busy."

"Tell him it's Ari," I said. "And tell him to bring his pokemon."

"Uhh…" the ranger backed away slightly. "What's going on?"

"Just do it," I said lazily, practising my bourgie wrist flick again.

The ranger looked at me for a long time then left the room and shut the door behind him. I could hear him chatting with someone else outside. The words 'attack' and 'security' made their way through to me. I laughed. Better call the ambos too while he was as it.

"Ari…" A deep voice cut through the hum of conversation and the entire building seemed to fall silent.

The door opened with a very quiet squeaking.

"Ari…" Kellyn said again, his eyes boring into my face. I gave him an angelic smile and reached out to pat the two beasts flanking me.

So he looked just like the photo on Auntie's mantelpiece. He had long hair tied back, the same colour as mine. The stubble on his chin looked like those anti-homeless spikes that capitalists like to put outside supermarkets – spiky little hairs arranged in neat rows.

I made him suffer in silence a bit longer. "Hello, Kellyn," I said eventually. "So you remember my name? Or did you have to ask your secretary?"

Kellyn winced as I spoke. Good.

"It's been so long since I saw you, Ari… Look at you now, you're all grown up, with your own pokemon too…"

I waited for the S word. Instead I got the B word and the W word.

"I've been so busy with my work, I never had the chance to visit you in Moki Town… You've had a good time with Auntie though?"

"We're tight," I said. "She's great for the bants."

Kellyn looked away. "Well… Now that you're here, do you want a tour of the HQ? I'm the Chief here," he said, puffing out his chest. "It's a really cool building, we have some fancy equipment on level 4…"

I zoned out as he spoke with passion about the latest stylus, pokepod and taser technology. I sighed internally. I was losing steam really fast for some reason. I wasn't sure what I'd expected from this encounter, but it hadn't gone the way I planned.

Kellyn didn't have any pokemon with him, and I wasn't too heartless to spare him from fighting my Metalynx with his bare, scarred hands.

I took a deep breath and tried to ignore my twisting stomach. Maybe it was too much watermelon, or sharing a meal with my mangy cat. Maybe it was just crushing disappointment.

I looked past Kellyn to see the rangers from before, eavesdropping. "Are you getting it all down, or does he need to talk a bit slower?" I cut in. They quickly averted their eyes.

"Actually," I continued to Kellyn, keen to revive my nasty vengeful spirit. "I don't want to see your pokemon technology. I've never been very interested in pokemon. I want to be a miner."

Kellyn looked gutted. A smile crept onto my face, but I couldn't get into it. I knew he was thinking about Lucille.

His face was expressionless as he pulled himself back together. "Well, if you're keen to see the mines, I do actually have a package that needs delivering to Cam." Theo's father.

Cameron's day job was as an electrician on the island east of Belbeach, where the old power plant and mine were located. There was lots of demolition work going on there at the moment.

I took the package coyly from Kellyn's hands and whistled to kitty, which followed obediently behind me, rubbing against my legs as we walked.

"Hey Ari…" Kellyn said, and I turned around, making my movements slow and deliberate. His face looked pained as he tried to find the right words to say. "Please be careful, okay?"

But as I walked past the gaggles of whispering rangers out of the building, my heart was heavy with the weight of everything that we hadn't been able to bring ourselves to say. And I had a feeling he felt the same.


	11. Epsilon Mine

"No Nuclear in Tandor! No Nuclear in Tandor!" a huge crowd of protestors blocked entrance to the dock which backed onto the sandy flats outside town.

"Oi, 'scuse me!" I yelled, elbowing people aside in irritation.

Like most environmental protestors, they didn't seem willing to get themselves hurt for their political agenda and the crowd peeled aside to let me and my steel beasts through.

"Environmental protestors my ass!" I shouted to them in the sudden silence. Plebs always seemed to have a certain respect for pokemon trainers, I was coming to realise, and I wasn't above abusing the attention.

"Nuclear power is clean and green! Take your dirty coal somewhere else!"

"Life cycle impact!" someone yelled back at me and there were a few whoops from the back. "Your uranium mines are poisoning our workers!"

Someone waved a cardboard cut-out wind turbine which had probably taken the fibres of a whole tree to produce.

"It's a pity nobody thought to invent automation," I hollered back.

"Those machines are power hungry and take our jobs!" someone else shouted.

"Hurr durr fire is scary, Thomas Edison was a –"

"Kid, just get on the boat," the attendant at the head of the dock said tiredly, rubbing at his temples.

I got on the boat. I stood up on the deck and waved angelically to the crowd as the captain pulled away and started us towards Power Plant Epsilon.

It was about a fifteen minute journey, and I let the cool rushing wind blast into my face with a whoop. Metalynx bounced up and down on the deck as we went over the big waves, and pyrite complained so irritatingly at getting splashed that I returned it to its ball.

"Ari?!" a semi-familiar voice yelled at me from further back. I swivelled around. There was Theo, eating an ice cream.

"What are you doing here?" Theo mumbled through his full mouth.

"I could ask you that too, grunt," I replied.

"Er, durr, my dad works there? You know they're knocking down the old power station to build a new one?"

I shrugged. "Who cares? Did you see the protestors? How fucking funny was that?"

Theo scowled. "Dad said he'd beat me up if I ever used that word again."

"I'll cut him if he does that," I said, pointing to kitty's tail.

Theo rolled his eyes. "Not me, dummy. He'd never hit me. I meant he'd beat up my pokemon in a battle. And he can beat everyone with his Yatagaryu."

"His what," I said incredulously. Yata what the mcwhat?

"Yatagaryu," Theo said painfully slowly like he was teaching a kindergarten class how to spell. "Ya-ta-"

"I got it," I said with my dismissive bourgie wrist flick.

Theo frowned. "What was that?" He mocked the wrist flick. "Seriously? Are your hands paralysed? Are you having a fit?"

I blushed. How embarrassing. I'd thought it looked cool from this angle.

We got off the boat with Theo giggling and flicking his wrist more and more exaggeratedly.

"Theo, what are you doing?! Are you having a fit?!" someone yelled in the distance. There was Cameron. He was wearing high vis and a beat-up yellow hard hat.

"Ah, hello Ari," he said as he got closer. "Nice to see you again too." He examined the package I handed to him.

"These must be the forms I asked for," he said. "So many environmental exemptions to apply for." He sighed. "Well tell Kellyn I said thanks. Theo, come on."

Cameron led his son away to the offices and I was left standing on the dock like a beached whale. I was small fry here and it was a little disconcerting.

"Coming back?" the boat captain called to me and waved.

"Nah," I replied. "I'll stay a bit longer."

"Your loss." He shrugged and smirked, and his workers began untying the boat from the dock.

After the sound of its motor had waned into the distance, I looked around and stretched. Blissful! A hazy layer of dust hung omnipresent over the whole island, and from time to time a huge rumble from the mines made the ground shake.

"I feel so alive," I said to kitty, which was growling towards some nearby long grass.

"Come on. Let's go see if they locked the explosives shed." Kitty growled harder. "Mate, I was just kidding." I rolled my eyes.

Suddenly, out of the long grass sprang a Costraw surrounded by that eerie green glow we'd seen in the cave before Rochfale. Yikes! The Costraw hissed and kitty hissed back.

"Er kitty, that doesn't look good… Come on, let's go." Kitty wasn't listening to me. Oh no, I wailed silently. Not again. Not now.

"Use metal claw!" I tried again. Kitty seemed to snap back to the present, reached out and leashed metal claw on the Costraw. I let out my breath in relief. That was a one-hit KO on the wild pokemon. I frowned. Even with kitty's OP attack stat, metal claw was 1/2x affective on the poison-psychic type… That shouldn't have been a dire hit.

I examined my pokepod display. 'Psychic-Nuclear type' it said as I pressed the summary button. Was this a joke? Nuclear type?

I rubbed at my forehead. I grabbed onto the scruff of kitty's neck and pulled it away from the scene. This was so weird. The glowing Terlard in the cave hadn't had Nuclear listed on its typing. And kitty wasn't affected by any nasty stylus force field here.

I took kitty and hurried in the other direction, towards the mine entrance. It was about a ten minute walk to get there, but hoo boy was it worth it. From the office, we had a great view over the open pit, which was dotted with shafts sunk here and there. Huge trucks the size of a house rumbled around the staggered levels of the pit.

"Nice," I said.

The woman at the counter looked up suddenly, startled. She hadn't noticed me come in. "Can I help you?" she said.

I pushed kitty behind a nearby sofa with my foot. "I've come for a visit. Can I see the mine?"

She looked at her planner. "Are you Morgan Pierre from Vinoville Metals Research Institute? I wasn't expecting you until tomorrow."

"Yep that's me," I said. "Change of plans." I gave her a lazy grin.

"I'll just fetch Stan," she said with a smile. When she left the room I tried frantically to suck kitty into a pokeball. It yowled in protest, lifted its huge front paws and clawed a gash down the side of the sofa. "Kitty!" I hissed. "Get back here."

I chased it round the room, giving myself a stitch. The computer was knocked over on the desk. A potted plant fell over on its side. I wheezed from exertion and kitty yowled in glee, thinking this was some fun game.

I reached out my pokeball for one final attempt, tripped over the plant and went sprawling on my face. Kitty gave a manic screech and threw itself onto the lovely lace curtains.

The receptionist opened the office door at that exact moment, trailed by the mine manager. I closed my eyes in horror. My life had reached a new low. Things really couldn't get any worse right now.

Crack. Creak. My head spun and the two adults stared at me in shock. Oh no. Oh no, no, no.

My pokemon egg was hatching in my bag.

"Sorry," I said the S word. "I'm sorry about my pokemon."

The woman walked in wordlessly and started straightening out her desk. The man reached out gingerly and tried to pry kitty off the curtains.

I took the egg out of my bag and put it down on the floor to give it space. Then I went over to the curtain and scolded kitty. "You're not a little kitty any more," I snapped. It jumped down from the curtains; I ignored its demand for a head rub and closed my eyes after examining the damage.

I righted the potted plant. "Clean up the dirt," I said to kitty, and it obediently went over to hoover up the soil with its plant-like fur.

"It's stopped hatching," the manager said with a frown, pointing at my egg. He was right. After a couple of cracks, the shaking had stopped. "Must be a big old thing to be stuck in there," he continued amicably.

I picked up the egg and put it back in my bag.

Finally, I took out my bourgie wallet and deposited $2000 on the desk. "For the curtains," I said, and stuffed my still-bulging wallet back into my pocket.

The receptionist gave me a terse smile. "Enjoy your tour," she said.

"I think we could all do with a shot or two after that!" the manager said with a booming laugh after we let the office door slam shut behind us.

Kitty loped along obediently behind me. The manager fetched a flask from his pocket and offered me the cap. Lovely pungent clear spirits came out from inside. The Russian water!

"My hobby is breaking OH&S regulations," he said with a wink and took a big swig from the flask.

I still couldn't believe I was here, doing this. How had I managed to get past so many adults who should've known better? I smiled to myself in satisfaction.

"So Morgan, how's the research going? Superconductors, was it?" the manager asked, replacing his flask.

I sighed in relief. I should eavesdrop more often. "That's right. Sheldon and Solana are making good headway."

"Solana, that's right! From…"

"Inhore University."

"Yep. We had her down here a while ago too. Sounds like the funding sitch in Zhery's pretty hostile right now."

"She got an offer to work with us though, so there's always that as a backup."

"No way!" the mine manager gasped. "That would be amazing!"

I looked at his red face. I realised he had a crush on Solana.

We started the tour in the pit. The manager explained how the rock was extracted in blocks with a mixture of explosives, mechanical excavators and specially trained Drilgann. What a dream.

He described the pitchblende ore and its chemical properties, and how it was crudely processed on site before being sent off for refining on the other side of the island. After that, the uranium was used in fuel rods for the power plants north of Vinoville and east of Tsukinami, and soon right here on the island.

"If we want to go down into the shaft, we'll have to get safety gear from the office." The manager pointed towards a small weatherboard shack just ahead in the pit. We went in and kitted up with radiation-shielding coveralls and gas masks.

There was an immediate change of mood when we ducked under the steel ceiling beams and into the shaft. I felt the dampness creep into me as we stood waiting for the lift. My eyes took a while to adjust to the darkness, my old friend.

"We actually had an accident here ten years ago," the manager said in a sombre tone. "That's why you see these reinforced ground supports. We had to completely overhaul our tunnel construction codes after the collapse. That's one thing we can't get around." He sighed.

"We had visitors that day too, from the power plant… Such a shame. I'm sure you heard about it on the news, though you would've been young back then."

"I did," I said. "There was a scientist called Lucille, right?"

"Yeah. They never found her body, which was a big pity. She was Kellyn's wife, you know Kellyn at ranger HQ in the city? It totally ruined him. He had a kid but he used to say, looking in their eyes used to remind him too much of Lucille, so he couldn't take care of the child anymore."

I gulped down the lump in my throat as the lift clattered up to reach us. We climbed into the cage and it took us down at breakneck speeds to the underground.

"Anyway, it's all safe as anything these days, so you have no need to worry, Morgan." The manager smiled behind his mask.

We'd left kitty up at the office in the care of some of the men on shift. I still had pyrite in its ball, but I felt exposed and unprotected nonetheless. Perhaps this heightened my perception, which let me see the old grimy steel door set into the side of the drift.

I gasped. Those steel cross-bars… The shape of the lock… There was no mistaking it. This door was identical to the ones Theo and I had seen when investigating the rangers' escape routes back in Comet Cave.

"Hey," I said. "What's in here? Storage?"

The manager stopped short and frowned at the door. "To be honest, I'd have to look at my mine layout sheets." He reached forward to give the handle a rattle, but it was locked. "I don't think we use whatever's in there anymore. Might be an old emergency exit."

We moved on, and the door wasn't brought up again.

We examined the working face, where robots drilled holes into the wall and filled them with an emulsion mixture ready for blasting. Cool.

"Everything seems to be working fine down here…" the manager said. "Of course, we have engineers monitoring all of this from up in the control room."

The tour finished up soon after that, and we went back up to return the radiation gear. Kitty pounced on me when it saw me but I held out a hand and it sat back obediently on its haunches. I snickered. Of course kitty would end up being the only cat in the world anyone had to train like a dog.

"Good luck back in Vinoville," the manager said to me back at the front office. He shook my hand. "Let me know how the research goes. And maybe even the egg if you have time." He gave me a warm smile and we parted on good terms.

I still couldn't believe I'd got away with that, and walked away from the mine glowing.

A yell snapped me out of my reverie and I looked up to see Cameron waving at me from the path leading to the power plant site. He looked distraught.

"Come quick, Ari!" he shouted. "Theo's had an accident!"


	12. Power Plant Epsilon Part 1

I rushed up to Cameron.

"What happened?!" I asked.

He pulled a hand through his hair and babbled. "He fell through a hole in some rotten floorboards, over in the old plant. None of us can get down there to help him! I was just on my way to the mine to get some special equipment! We need to hurry – I'm worried he'll get sick from radiation exposure. Oh no. I should have kept a closer eye on him… Why wasn't I more careful?!"

"Come on." I started jogging back down the road and Cameron followed. I was wheezing before long. I jumped on the back of my Metalynx which was slightly faster than pyrite. Kitty meowed in protest. "Not now," I said into its ear.

We rushed onto the site of the old power plant, Cam running strongly ahead and me clutching onto the metallic ears of a giant yowling green cat.

"In here!" Cameron called, and I turned kitty's head to face towards the entrance of the dilapidated old building.

"Help!" I could hear Theo's voice from beneath a tiny hole in the floor. "Dad! Are you back? Help, I feel sick!"

"I'm here, son! Ari's going to come down and help you! They can fit through the hole!"

Excuse me?! I looked at Cam in consternation. This was the first I'd heard of this plan.

"Go down head first so you can grab his hands," Cameron said to me. "I'll hold onto your feet, and then pull you and Theo back up."

I would very much like to help, thanks for asking.

I groaned and slipped out of my backpack. Kitty purred and tried to rub against me. I slithered forward on my belly and stuck my head through that mangy hole.

"Hey Theo," I said. "Touché."

"Shut up," Theo sulked. I looked at him in horror. Though it was pitch black with my body blocking the hole, I could see him glowing a pale green. And he'd only been down here a few minutes! I think I understood how the wild pokemon here got their colour and type now…

"Lift up your arms," I instructed. Theo lifted up his glowing arms.

"Walk forward and left a tiny bit," I said. He positioned himself underneath me and I gripped onto his hands, kicking twice to give Cameron the signal to pull.

My head emerged from the hole. Then my hands, and Theo's hands. As Cameron gave one final heave, the rotten floorboards gave a colossal groan and gave way.

I looked around in horror as the scene unfolded in slow motion. Cameron gave a yell of surprise and his legs disappeared into the ground. I felt the floor give way beneath me, and, still connected to both Cam and Theo, I fell down onto the hard concrete floor with a thud. Mrrrrrrow! Kitty fell down after me, and my bag landed on its soft belly, causing it to yowl.

"Oh no," Cameron said, pulling himself upright. My heart hurt. I struggled to lift it.

"Ari's hurt," Theo yelled, a bit too cheerfully. I wanted to hit him.

"What's that cracking sound?" Cameron said, looking around in alarm.

The three of us lay or sat looking up through the now huge hole in the floor as my bag shook between us.

I sighed. "It's a pokemon egg. It's finally hatching."

Cameron quickly unzipped my bag to pull the egg out.

Piece by piece, the tough egg shell broke apart, and eventually the specimen inside was revealed. It had a dragon-like appearance, but its body was made of steel and instead of legs or wings it had… I refocused my eyes. What in the hell? It had caterpillar tracks, like a tank. I screwed up my eyes and looked again. I wasn't mistaken!

I reached for my pokepod. But my pokepod wasn't there. I groaned. I'd lost a bunch of things from my pockets with that goddamn wallet taking up so much space…

The pokemon gave a distinctly dragon-like roar and trundled forward towards me on its tracks.

"Sup," I said, wincing as my bruises scraped against the floor.

It lowered its head and the antenna on top of it touched my face. I felt blood somehow rushing to my face, and soon felt a lot better.

"Cheers, mate," I said. I still had no idea what it was and, it soon became apparent, neither did Theo or Cameron.

"Cool," Theo said. "Did it just heal you?"

"Yeah, it brought all this blood to my face. Sick, huh?"

Suddenly the ground started to shake with the sound of heavy footsteps. Three bright green, glowing Trawpints with unearthly empty eyes emerged from the darkness, my old friend, and tromped across that basement towards us, fanning out to block our escape. I closed my eyes. Why did this shit always happen to me.

"My pokemon are still in the office!" Theo wailed.

"Mine too," Cameron said, and he sounded really worried.

"Kitty," I commanded. "Use Metal Claw!"

Mrrrrrrow! Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no. I let my eyes reluctantly fall open to see kitty quivering on its haunches, eyes unfocused, the fur on its back standing up straight. Mrrrrrrow!

The glowing Trawpints let out their battle cries once more and moved forward to attack in unison, at the command of the stylus controlling their brains.

I put my hands over my head, curled up tight behind my meat shield Metalynx, and Cameron threw his body over Theo's.

Roar! A space-rending dragon roar erupted from the darkness beside us and one of the Trawpints let out a howl of pain. Roar! There it was again! My eyes flew open in complete awe. The newly hatched pokemon was lashing out with its huge fangs and tearing through the skin of the Trawpints.

"It's using Dragon Claw…" Cameron said, as if in shock.

"What's going on?" Theo's muffled voice from beneath.

"Look, it's KO-ing those wild pokemon." Cameron shook his head. "But that makes no sense. Pokemon always hatch at level 1. And those Trawpints must be a high level to have evolved."

Theo wiggled out from underneath his dad. "Woah," he said. "Awesome."

We watched the tank dragon smash through the last Trawpint, whose poison attacks did no damage on it.

In the silence that followed, we heard footsteps – lighter, human footsteps – and then the click of a heavy lock turning. Then a quieter one, as if two doors had been locked, one behind the other.

Cameron took the opportunity to radio for help. Within minutes, the big bulky equipment which had been unable to reach Theo earlier was brought to the scene, secured against the weight-supporting columns connected to the building foundations, and all of us were hoisted up to the surface.

Kitty, released from the grip of the stylus, was meowing for food. Back in the construction site office, someone fed it a ham sandwich.

Cameron shook his head. "I don't understand. We closed off the basement level months ago – there's concrete sealing up the only entrance and exit. The equipment down there was leaking dangerous radiation, but we need to demolish the above-ground structure before we could get to it. So we sealed it off for protection whilst we worked up here. But I'm sure of it – I heard someone down there."

"Me too," I nodded. "I have a feeling I know who it was."

I spilled the details about the rogue rangers, confident in my position of exclusive knowledge. I felt like Cameron had a newfound respect for me, now he was seeing me with strong pokemon which had obviously been raised with care. See what I mean?

"That is very, very interesting, Ari." Cameron shook his head again.

"It's true!" Theo yelled from the rest bunk at the other side of the room. A nurse was frantically trying to hold him down so she could take his vitals.

"When me and Ari were passing through Comet Cave, we found a bunch of those people have a meeting!" Theo continued to yell, ignoring my death stare and hand gestures motioning for him to shut up.

Cameron seemed to grasp the sensitivity of the situation and beckoned to me. We went over to join Theo in the ward.

"So what happened in Comet Cave?" he asked quietly, now the nurse was done and had left us alone.

"So this fat guy blocking the entrance led us to this room full of these people, who look like rangers but they're bad guys," Theo said excitedly. "Then he said he wanted to steal their stylus and made us attack the pokemon they were controlling as a diversion!"

Cameron frowned. "Who was this person?"

"He showed me a badge," I said quickly, keen to reassure him. "Undercover ranger, I thought."

"Anyway, he failed, and the bad guys ran off down secret tunnels, and then this massive ginormous Terlard that was glowing like them Trawpints came chasing him down the tunnel, and Ari fought it off!"

A thought struck me. I felt around for the device that Solana had thrown me, but it was not in my pocket or my bag. (As an aside, I'd managed to locate my pokepod, which I'd put in my bag sometime without remembering. saved from Destruction by Cameron).

A second thought struck me. Wow, I was really on a roll today. Maybe radiation was good for the intellect. Solana had said she and Sheldon were working on a material to block the signals from the stylus… using a chemical from Tracton fangs! And the hatched pokemon had been immune to the signals from the stylus.

I quickly pointed my pokepod at the tank dragon. 'New pokemon registered – Tracton' the mechanical voice enunciated. Epic. I smirked coolly. I really was getting smart.

My grin quickly reverted to a frown when I looked more carefully at the display. Tracton was level 30… But it had literally just hatched less than an hour ago. What was this horrifying spectre, this bending of the laws of physics.

"It's level 30," I said to Cameron, as if he would know what to do.

Cam shrugged helplessly. "It must be something to do with the radiation – it does all sorts to living things. It doesn't seem hurt though, so I think you got a lucky break this time."

I shrugged. He was right. I should just take it and run. I'd ask Solana if I ever bumped into her again.

"Ari, I have a favour to ask of you," Cameron said, looking supremely tired all of a sudden.

"I can't stop thinking about what's going on down there in the basement. And it looks like your Tracton is the only thing which stands a chance against those pokemon. Will you accompany me to check it out?"

'Yes! Yes!' I could just about see Auntie pumping her fists in the air. 'Think of what it would do for your resume to have an engineer referee for you!'

Thanks, Auntie, I will enjoy the prestige for the remaining five days of my life as I die slowly from radiation poisoning.

"OK, I'll do it," I said with a shrug. Cameron's face relaxed into a smile.

"Fantastic, thank you," he said. "I'm sure I will find some way to repay it to you. Now we will kit up properly this time…"

He handed out gas masks and coveralls like the ones at the mine, and I felt the tension easing up. Maybe I'd get a chance to enjoy my fancy new CV yet.


	13. Power Plant Epsilon Part 2

I gazed out into the darkness through my radiation-shielding helmet, the light on top of it cutting a brilliant beam that reached as far as the walls.

"Ari, can you hear me?" a tinny voice beside my head said.

"Yep," I replied.

"Good, then the comms system is working," Cameron said. "Well down here is where the spent fuel rods are stored in ponds – hence why the radiation is so strong."

Cameron turned to direct his light into the furthest recesses of the massive basement, and I did the same. Over in the corner, past a thick glass wall, what looked like two swimming pools reflected the light of our head lamps.

"You can see the old entrance and exit there," Cam pointed towards a huge mass of freshly set concrete in the wall.

"And those," he swivelled again and pointed his light at two heavily locked doors. I was getting dizzy. This suit was really stuffy. "The one on the left is a storage room, the one on the right leads to the hazard bunker. It was there for imminent explosion threats, no time to evacuate. But it was poorly designed and it's never been used – even before the accident, nobody had been down there in years."

I adjusted my mask uncomfortably.

We shuffled forwards towards the doors, Tracton rolling after me with mechanical whirring sounds.

Cameron handed me a set of keys. I fumbled them with my ballooning hazard suit gloves.

Eventually the door on the left was opened with a lot of cursing, and a cloud of dust (like, 1930s Midwest level) exploded from the jam and pasted itself on our clear plastic face shields.

The big storage room was mostly empty, the shelves and cabinets rusting and collapsed in places. We did a cursory walk-around anyway and found nothing. Some glowing green Chyinmunks scuttled around by the walls but a roar from Tracton kept them away.

The last shelf held on it the charred remains of a book. I lifted it gingerly with my massive bulky gloves.

"Leave it," Cameron said, waving towards the exit.

I stuffed it into my hazard suit's pocket.

I scuttled out after Cameron, and the storage room door was locked again with a fresh round of cursing.

"Before, Ari, did you hear the sound of a lock turning when we were down here?"

I nodded. "I heard two."

"Interesting…" Cameron went to scratch his head but hit his face shield.

We eventually got the right-hand door open. It turned cleanly and seemed to be well-oiled. Our footsteps echoed as we clattered down the passageway behind it in ungainly fashion.

A pack of radioactive Tancoon yipped and snarled as they ran past us from a nest dug in the side of the crumbling walls. Great. Those would be released to the world of the living now, as a set of steps had been erected to let us get down here.

We were still watching after the Tancoon when Cameron bumped into something hard. Baaaa! I gulped.

Cam and I turned around slowly. Baaaa! Two fluorescently evil green eyes stared at us from above. Those eyes were connected to the fluffy horned head of a giant, radioactive black sheep. It towered over us on its hind legs.

"A Baariette," Cameron said. He shook his head. "It's a dark-fighting type. If only I could use Yatagaryu now."

We looked at Tracton. Fighting. Great.

Cameron had a brainwave. "Maybe Yatagaryu's ability will still work, even if it won't attack."

"Huh?" I said, confused. What ability could be that useful? I thought of pyrite's Rock Head and its total lack of recoil moves.

Cameron had withdrawn a pokeball from his hazard suit pocket, and let it rip with a yell. An enormous coil of a dragon emerged from the ball, making a sort of bird-like cry. Cool.

I felt something splash onto my helmet. Splat, splat. Cameron was looking around with a rapturous expression on his face. He laughed triumphantly and threw up his hands. I stared at him in consternation.

I looked up. I couldn't see much in the narrow beam of light. Wait a minute… Was that… Rain?

"Yatagaryu is a stormbringer pokemon," Cameron explained happily. "Wherever it goes, it will start a thunderstorm. Even indoors, it can collect water vapour from the air. I'm not sure if the lightning part will work in here though."

Flash! A brilliant fork of lightning erupted from the raining clouds above us. Guess that answered that question. Cameron and I both watched in horror as the lightning fork came down on Tracton instead of Baariette. Oh no. I closed my eyes.

Roar! Tracton's motors whirred into motion. I opened my eyes again. Tracton was practically glowing with energy. What in the name of… I pointed my pokepod at it. 'Ability – Motor Drive activated' the mechanical voice said. 'Speed stat increased sharply.'

No way. This was just the lucky break I needed. "Tracton, use Iron Defense!" I yelled and immediately it locked itself into action before the Baariette could even finish wiping the rain out of its hollow eyes.

Baariette yelped and hurried with its attack, letting loose a mighty cross-chop on Tracton. Still on green health! What a break! "Use Iron Defense again!" I yelled as Cameron tried in vain to catch the battle stance'd Yatagaryu's eye.

Baariette loosed cross chop again but the toughened steel on Tracton's body just absorbed the shock.

"Now, use Dragon Claw!" I ordered, and Tracton zipped forward on its wheels and ripped into Baariette with its fangs. Baariette was weakened enough that its next cross-chop missed Tracton entirely. It staggered on its feet as Tracton went in again with its fangs.

A huge lightning fork erupted from the swirling vapour clouds and shot into one of Baariette's eyes. It let out a miserable and empty howl before folding to the ground, fainted.

I fed Tracton a hyper potion and patted its steely body.

So this Baariette hadn't had the Nuclear typing – that meant its green glow came from stylus control, not the radioactivity.

We picked ourselves gingerly over the collapsed sheep. Cameron withdrew Yatagaryu into its ball and the rain stopped, though the walls and floor were still damp from the storm.

I stood on one of the Baariette's horns by accident and it grunted. I quickly moved on before it could wake up.

"Well done," Cameron told me, puffing. "That was an impressive battle."

"Thanks for the zap," I said. We nodded at each other, a silent sign of respect.

I felt like I was in a gang or something.

Again we were too busy talking to each other and we both crashed into the door this time.

Cameron turned his head slowly to look at it. "This shouldn't be here..." he said. "There's only one door before the bunker, and we already went through it."

The second lock I'd heard. Cam tried the handle but it wouldn't budge.

"Stay here," he told me. "I'm going to get a master key."

Before I could even protest, he was making his way back down the passage, and soon I was all alone with the darkness, my old friend, and the crazed giant sheep.

Roar! I looked down. Ah, not quite. Tracton was still here.

"What's up," I said, sitting myself down with a creaking of the joints. Tracton trundled over and placed itself beside me. We sat in silence for a while.

Suddenly, it leaned over to the door with its antenna and I heard mechanisms shifting and groaning inside. What was this magic?

Eventually, the steel came clean off the door and the lock fell to pieces. The heavy door started to swing open, freed from its restraints. Tracton had pulled all the material out from the lock with its special antenna chemical.

"Sick," I said. "You'd better be ready to fight whatever's in there though."

I hauled myself to my feet and poked my head round the door. There was the bunker. The walls were peeling ancient faded paint, and damp, rotting partitions split the room into several areas. I could see a makeshift kitchen, an area with bunks... And over in the corner, a huge tank of some sort that beeped quietly.

I felt uneasy right away. There was someone in here. But wherever I looked, I couldn't see any sign of life. There were no other exits from this room, so the person who'd attacked us with the Trawpints and who was controlling the Baariette must still be in here. And they were using the same stylus technology employed by the bad rangers.

And these doors... I looked again, more carefully. The second door we'd just opened was again identical to the ones we'd seen in Comet Cave and the uranium mine.

It was all connected somehow.

There were some charred pages scattered on the floors, bunks and tables. I took out the book I'd picked up from the storage room – the size of the paper matched. I quickly collected all the loose leaves and tucked them inside the cover.

I made my way over to the tank in the corner, and pointed my headlamp upwards to examine its towering extent. A row of three green lights blinked periodically, out of sync. My lamp swept over a peeling and faded sticky label beside the control panel. I read, '092'.

I jabbed idly at the buttons on the panel. This place was slated for demolition, there could hardly be anything useful down here.

'Suspend stasis mode?' A sentence flashed up in green letters on the screen and I recoiled. My nerves must have really been strung out.

Better not fuck around with things too much. 'No', I selected.

The machine beeped. And again. And a longer beep. 'Reboot failed.' The beeping and error message looped three times. I gulped down the lump in my throat. Better get out of here.

I swivelled away from the machine, and the next thing I knew stars were flashing in front of my eyes and excruciating pain was pulsing from my forehead. I was falling. I hit the ground with a thud. Then everything went dark.


	14. Belbeach

"Ari."

"Ari."

I peeled open my poor battered eyelids.

Two faces were staring down at me. There was Cameron, and a woman in nurse's uniform...

Cameron let out a big breath he'd been holding. "They're awake," he said. "You had us worried for a while, Ari."

I tried to lift my head and flashing stars hit me again as pain bit into my forehead. "Ow," I said and scowled, which made it worse.

"You had a fall," the nurse said. "You fell on something hard that cut right through your mask and into your forehead. It's only a flesh wound, though – it'll hurt for a bit, but you'll be fine."

I frowned. Something didn't seem quite right about this recount of events. Was something in the wrong order here...?

"Rest up for a day or so," Cam told me. "Theo and I are going back to the mainland, but the nurses here will take care of you." He pointed at my phone, which was lying undamaged on my bedside table. "Call me if you need anything, okay?"

Cameron left. I could see Theo outside the ward, the top of his head visible above the window sill. He jumped up every now and then, trying to catch sight of me. I waved.

It got very boring very soon afterwards. My bag, pokeballs, and cat were safe with me in the ward, but kitty was napping underneath the bed and a poor source of entertainment.

I extracted the charred notebook from my bag, wincing as blood rushed to my forehead when I leaned down. There were disappointingly few words which could be made out through the thick cover of black and brown char. The pages were completely burnt away and holey in places.

'Pr- 092' There it was again! I gasped as I glimpsed the number in the corner of one of the loose leaves. I examined the page in more detail. 'H—d scientist -l—granted -, discov- -2 - -apable of ind- -ou-.' This was hopeless. It was unintelligible.

I turned the page.

'Password - - -asis ta-: 100102'

I raised my eyebrow. That was my birthday. 10th January 2002. Weird. Then again it was probably a coincidence. For all I knew it probably meant '100 102' or like, 100 = 10^2.

I closed the charred notebook and reached out for my phone instead. Maybe I should post some photos of it online and let the conspiracy theories run. Then I thought of the shady figures in Comet Cave and decided I'd better keep the jewels for myself.

I passed a comfortable enough night in the rest house, though the food was shocking.

I felt a lot better in the morning, and the pain in my forehead was already starting to die down. A nurse changed the dressing and said the stitches were looking good.

I was discharged after breakfast, and luckily for me and my stitches, the lame wisp of breeze could barely lift a leaf off the ground, let alone whip up any ocean waves, so the trip back to Belbeach was calm.

I bumped into Kellyn on the main street. I let my eyes flick to the left, but not quickly enough to miss him turning his gaze awkwardly in the opposite direction.

We kind of just stood there in the middle of the footpath, purposefully looking past each other's shoulders, and festered in silence for a few moments.

"Hey Ari," Kellyn said eventually, first to break the silence and forfeit his contention in the cold shoulder war.

"Hi Kellyn," I replied equally as coolly.

"Does your head hurt?" he asked. "We have some great painkilling cream in the rest room." He gestured vaguely in the direction of HQ.

"Not really," I replied. "Cameron took me to the doctor's already, it's all looked after." Ouch! I smirked as Kellyn cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"Did you find anything interesting at the mine?" he tried again.

"Got a tour, it was pretty sick," I said, perking up. "We went down into the tunnels." Kellyn's shoulders stiffened. He didn't like that. Well, so what? He surely wouldn't have the audacity to suggest he could tell me what to do and what not to do now.

"Sounds like you had a good time," Kellyn said stiffly. "I suppose you're going to challenge the gym now?"

Again I felt that gnawing feeling in my stomach. Maybe I was getting ulcers from the radiation. Maybe it was just that crushing disappointment again.

"Yep," I said. "I've got a super OP Tracton so I should be fine."

Kellyn nodded. "I think you will be. You're my child after all..."

I sniffed in disgust. He always managed to turn everything back to be about himself.

"Well, I'm headed to a meeting down town, so I guess I'll see you around, Ari."

"See ya," I said coolly.

We parted before the ice between us could freeze-weather the nice buildings beside us.

I felt myself warming back up as the rising sun beat down on me. Kitty kept lying down for a luxurious sunbathe.

The Belbeach City gym was located at the top of a big set of steps which I wheezed walking up. But it was only a slight wheezing – I seemed to be getting fitter.

The automatic doors closed behind me with a hiss.

"Welcome!" said the gym guy, looking up brightly from his computer. The cheery customer service voice didn't sound fake. Maybe the sun made everyone happy here.

I held out my ID for scanning, and the gym guy handed me a complementary fresh water. Nice. I headed past the elaborately sculpted water features and down to an underground pool. Two pools, actually, one for people and one for pokemon training.

"Hello youngster!" a fisherman accosted me as I made my way to the pool side. "Would you like some fried Magikarp to supplement your training?"

I screwed up my brow. "Uhh..."

"Wrong answer!" he yelled, cutting me off. "If you don't want to do business, then we battle!"

The fisherman opened the little bucket next to his rod, brought out a Tubjaw and threw it into the training pond. He reclined in his folding chair. I closed my eyes and let the Rochfale flashbacks roll.

"Go, kitty," I said, and kitty took its position by the side of the pool.

"Kitty, use Leaf Blade!" I instructed. Kitty's vine whip had been upgraded recently as its body strengthened. It even moved ahead of Tubjaw, but we were a good ten levels ahead. I scratched the back of my neck guiltily as the fish was mercilessly hacked up by kitty's tail.

The fisherman didn't seem fussed. "Go, Brailip!" he called cheerily, flinging another fish from his bucket into the pool.

The fish, which had the appearance of a brain with a giant pair of lips, was also subsequently diced up by Leaf Blade before having a chance to attack.

"Good fight!" the fisherman said, hooting with laughter, fishing out his wallet.

I considered the fainted pokemon in the pond. "Uhh..." I gestured.

The fisherman laughed lazily and hauled himself out of the chair to go retrieve them. "It's all good, mate. I'm frying my pokemon for dinner later anyway."

"Okay..." I laughed awkwardly and backed away with an expression of consternation on my face. I reached down to pat kitty on the back. I imagined tossing up kitty's leaves in a stir fry.

The rest of the trainers in the gym were normal at least, and just as easy to beat. Cocaran and Sand Tomb were still a problem, but we had such OP moves by now I could KO a Cocaran without fielding any attacks.

"What's Cali going to think of me now?" wailed a pretty swimmer after I ripped through her team.

"Cali?"

"The gym leader," the swimmer said with a sniffle. "She's so cool..." The swimmer was blushing. I realised she had a crush on Cali.

I made my way through the sliding door at the far end of the pool complex. At the far end of the well-lit back room was a dark and pretty girl in a blue bikini, squatting in front of what looked like a giant snail with a sandstone shell. She was stroking its slimy body and speaking to it gently.

I cleared my throat. The girl's head and the snail's eyes swivelled round to face me in unison.

"Hi," I said.

"Welcome!" the girl said with a warm smile, standing up straight. "I'm Cali, you must be here to challenge me! Well, come meet my Sableau. This is one of the stars of my team."

I walked over and gingerly patted the snail. Its body was less slimy and more just really smooth, like plastic. I relaxed.

"Cool, huh? It's tougher than your usual sea snails, and more agile as well. Well, I might as well tell you a bit more about myself. I'm a lifesaver when I'm not here. Ten years ago, I was saved myself by a pokemon. The power plant explosion created a huge tsunami which sucked me out to sea. The coastal precinct was wrecked that day – I am lucky to be alive."

Shocking. The explosion had been so big as to cause an earthquake? That didn't sound like an above-ground detonation...

"I fight harder now because I'm totally connected to my pokemon. So come on – see if you can beat us!"

I hardly need to describe to you how the battle went down. Sableau was a ground-water type. A crowd had amassed by the entrance to the room, watching Cali and her ripped abs as she pranced around with orders for her pokemon.

"Sableau, fall back!" Cali called with a gesture of her muscly arm. A collective 'ooh' rose from the crowd. "Go, Cararalm!" From the side of the room scuttled a large sandy crab with plants growing from its shell.

Cali folded her arms and stared towards the door, tapping a foot on the ground. The fishermen and swimmers cleared their throats awkwardly and retreated en masse, examining the air conditioning unit on the wall with sudden interest.

"All right Cararalm, use Curse!" Cali said.

"Kitty, use Leaf Blade," I countered.

Despite the crab's raised defense, kitty's tail slashed a deep gash in its shell and whipped up a cloud of sandy debris.

"Wooh, this is the hardest I've had to fight in a long time!" Cali whooped, her face lit up with exertion.

Kitty lunged forward for another attack... and stopped dead in its tracks as if it had hit a wall.

"...Kitty?" I said, my voice quavering slightly.

Mrrrrrrow! Kitty's eyes were empty and stared straight ahead. The grassy fur on its back started to stand up. I closed my eyes in horror.

"What's going on?!" Cali's voice cut through to me. "Cararalm, what's wrong?"

I opened my eyes again to see Cali bent down, trying frantically to get a response from either Cararalm or Sableau. I barely reacted as kitty started to glow the familiar green. It was like a routine by now.

"Another attack," I said, my hand resting on Tracton's pokeball. "You should lock down the gym."

Cali looked up at me, her eyes wide. "Attack? What's going on?"

Before I had the chance to explain, a thunderous rumble ripped through the air and an enormous jolt threw both of us off our feet, and knocked our paralysed pokemon on their sides.

"Earthquake!" someone shouted from outside. "Get under the tables!"

I was getting a weird sense of deja vu for some reason. The fishermen and swimmers started scrambling for the tables by the bar, while Cali dragged me into a nearby storage shed and underneath a heavy steel table. The ground continued to shake around us.

Cali's face was screwed up into a worried frown as she tried to draw her pokemon back into their balls, but they refused the order.

Finally, a tremendous boom cracked through the air and Cali shrieked, grabbing onto me by instinct. I tried to remove her hands. I was being crushed by those guns.

Then, the sirens started. A big whooping and wailing sound which could be heard even underground here in the gym.

"The evacuation sirens," Cali said, her face hardening into business mode. She let go of me. "Take this badge. That was my last pokemon; you were going to win. You need to get out of Belbeach, now!"

I gripped the badge, and Cali ducked out from under the table and started directing the evacuation from the gym in the sudden cessation of the tremors.

I grabbed onto my kitty's legs and started to pull. I couldn't leave without my kitty! "Come on," I begged. It didn't respond. I got out a pokeball and tried to suck it in. It didn't respond.

"Ari, come on! You need to get out!" Cali shouted, waving. "The pokemon will be fine in there." She didn't look convinced.

I had no choice but to follow the crush up the stairs and out of the gym. As people clambered into their cars to join the gridlock which was already forming on the main street, I looked around and took stock.

I gasped. Over there in the distance – on the power plant island! A huge plume of debris was rising into the air. The sirens now beat my eardrums to shreds. I was standing right underneath one of the speakers. Great.

"Ari!" I swore I could hear someone calling my name. "Ari!"

I turned my head in a full circle. I saw Kellyn but it couldn't have been him. I kept going. The watermelon salesman? No, he was moving away from me...

"ARI!" Kellyn hollered again. So, it was him. I rolled my eyes. I ran over to Kellyn.

"You need to get out of town, now!" Kellyn said to me, the awkwardness gone in the panic. "That's the tsunami warning siren. There's been another explosion at the power plant!"

"B- but!" For once I was lost for words. "But the reactor wasn't even running! It's been shut for ten years!"

"I know!" Kellyn yelled. "We don't know what happened. But whatever it was, a wave is coming, and we need to get everyone out!"

"Wait," I wailed. "Can you help me? My Metalynx is not responding to me, it's still in the gym."

"What?!" Kellyn screwed up his face. I realised he didn't know about the corrupt stylus. But he reacted quickly. "Here, take these – they're bound to capture it or I'll sue the manufacturer!"

I took the balls. They had little 'M's printed on the seal.

"Hurry up!" Kellyn said again. "Get out, head west, to higher ground!"

I rushed back to the gym. "What are you doing?!" Cali gasped.

"Here, take these," I wheezed from the running, and passed her two of Kellyn's balls. "These will capture your pokemon."

Cali let out her breath in relief. "Thank you, Ari."

We headed back down to the basement together. I held out the ball towards kitty, and it was sucked in immediately. Awesome.

I didn't wait for Cali this time. I ducked out of the gym and joined the crush heading out of town. On foot, I was faster than everyone in their cars. Eventually I couldn't run anymore and I let Tracton out of its ball, collapsing onto its back with a colossal wheeze.

"Keep going," I gasped to it. It leaned over with its antenna and touched my belly. My stitch disappeared. Nice.

I kept stealing glances towards the island – nope, the spectre wasn't disappearing. In fact, the cloud was getting bigger. The water was already starting to retreat from the beach to the east.

"Hey, Ari!" Cameron waved at me from the dock, where workers from the island were getting off the packed little boat. I caught sight of Stan, the mine manager, and the receptionist, holding onto each other. So they were a couple. I thought of Stan's crush on Solana. Awkward.

"Ari," Cameron said again, coming up to me. "You should head out west to Vinoville. You'll be safe there. I already sent Theo. Here, take this ferry ticket."

"Thanks," I said. Cameron nodded.

"What about you guys?" I asked, gesturing around.

"We'll head south to Rochfale Pass, there's space for more people there. No problem. Don't worry about us – keep yourself safe. Look out for Theo if you see him."

I gripped the ticket in my hand and headed across the sand flats to the lagoon on the other side. I could see the luxury cruise ferry looming in the distance like a gleaming symbol of excess.

My M ball was shaking. I took it out of my bag. I could hear growling and yowling from inside. I punted it into the air and kitty exploded out, hissing. It saw me and came over to rub its head against my hand. We were out of range of the stylus then, I realised with relief.

I packed the ball away carefully.

Roar... Hiss...! My neck snapped up like flash frozen steel hit with a sledgehammer. A Gyarados had risen from the fringes of the lagoon and was towering over me. People at the dock behind me started to scream.

The Gyarados was glowing green, its empty, soulless eyes staring me down. Kitty started to hiss at it, trying to weave between my legs. I quickly pointed my pokepod at the wild pokemon – Nuclear-water type. There it was again!

Well, I already knew that steel type was super effective against Nuclear. But what about other types? Leaf Blade would be a bad test because it was already strong against water... I let the horse out of its ball.

"Go pyrite!" I ordered, as the screams intensified behind me. "Use Headbutt!"

Super effective!

The Gyarados had attempted to douse pyrite with some green gunk but nothing happened. I guessed it was a poisoning move.

"Pyrite, use mud slap!" I ordered again. This time, Gyarados hit first with a green ray of light – Gamma Ray, my pokepod told me – and it did trivial damage on pyrite.

Mud Slap also turned out to be super effective. Could it be... Was it even possible that Nuclear was weak against everything? I wasn't even worried about winning by this point, though it must've looked pretty terrifying from the dock.

Pyrite wore down the Gyarados with Headbutt and it sank back down into the deeps, the water turning green around it as it slithered away.

The crowd at the dock, not knowing quite how to react, started clapping. I let the sunlight glint off my three badges. I sucked pyrite back into its ball and made my way over to join the queue waiting for the ferry.


	15. Route 8 - Vinoville

I lounged in my assigned room on the cruise ship and let the questions pop idly into my brain.

Who were the bad rangers, and what did they want?

What was the meaning of all the underground doors and tunnels?

What had caused the explosion at the decommissioned power plant?

What had really happened to me down by the stasis tank?

And, most importantly, where was the restaurant?

I was starving! I hadn't eaten anything since my lousy rest house breakfast that morning.

I thumped heavily down the narrow little corridor, my kitty clacking along behind me, and made my way up the stairs to the deck. There! A bar! I readied my fake ID.

"G'day, what can I get for ya, kid?" the bartender said cheerfully, his crisp uniform flapping gently in the breeze.

I rolled my eyes and smiled maturely. "I get that all the time. It's the face. Can I get a bowl of chips and a cider?"

"I'll just need to see your ID," he said, waggling his eyebrows. "Like you said..."

I flashed him my fake one. No worries about anyone from Moki Town recognising it here!

"Cheers mate," the bartender said and got to work. I thanked the stars that Kellyn was ridiculously tall and I had inherited this trait.

I was munching on my chips when a sonic boom sounded behind me.

Just kidding, but it was close enough.

"ARI!" Theo's boisterous voice bashed my eardrums and he zoomed up to my table.

"Sup," I replied.

Upon seeing my less than zesty state, Theo's face fell. "Aww. I thought I could pretend everything was normal by acting like I do normally."

I gasped. What was this gem of wisdom doing coming from that little twelve-year-old twat?

"What are you thinking about?" I asked, taking a big drink.

"Ew, is that beer?" Theo said, making puking motions.

I rolled my eyes. "Nah, it's apple juice. Have some."

Theo took a drink. "Don't like it."

All the better, more for me.

We sat in silence for a while and Theo stole my chips.

"I wish Dad could've come with us," he said eventually. "I'm really worried about him."

I waved dismissively. "He'll be okay. He has his Yatagaryu, right? They can just fly away if the wave is too big."

I wasn't convinced either. Theo chewed on his thumb. "Your dad's the ranger chief though, isn't he?" he said eventually. "He's going to look after everyone. I'm sure of it."

Theo nodded as if to cement the truth of his statement in his mind. I thought of Kellyn protecting the people with a stylus, pokepod, and taser in each hand and rolled my eyes.

"Hey," Theo said. "I almost forgot. I wanna battle with you! I beat Cali and I'm hella strong now. Prepare to suffer and beg for mercy."

"Okay," I said lazily as Theo sprang to his feet and ripped a pokeball from his pocket.

"Go, Chimical!" he yelled, and the small creature came out with its digital cry. Theo had an evil glint in his eye. He'd been training his Chimical specially.

I smiled lazily. "Go, Tracton," I said, throwing its ball.

Theo's jaw dropped open when he pointed his pokepod at my pokemon. "Noooooo!" he shrieked. "I forgot about that one! It's not fair, I worked so hard!"

"Life isn't fair, brother," I replied with a grin as Tracton's dragon claw ripped through the hapless Chimical.

"Noooooo!" Theo shrieked again. "Fine, take this, go Lunapup!"

A little dog with a lolling tongue emerged from his ball. I pointed my pokepod. Ground-fighting. Yippee.

"Tracton, dragon claw!"

"Lunapup, Magnitude!" Theo yelled. Swaying unsteadily on the tilting deck, the dog's magnitude reached only 6, and Tracton survived the hit. Dragon Claw again KO'ed the enemy. I grinned. Tracton had a Brave nature, seriously boosting its attack stat.

"Heheh," Theo chortled to himself. Uh oh. What was coming.

"Go, Palij!" he whooped, and out came a medium-sized fire bird. I guessed it came between Pahar and Pajay. "It's speed is next level," Theo yelled. "This is gonna whoop your ass."

"Palij, use Flame Burst!" Theo commanded with a triumphant point of the index finger.

Palij dived forward, the flames on its body burning brightly, and crashed into Tracton, sending up a cloud of charred debris. Roar! Oh no. A critical hit.

As I sucked the fainted Tracton back into its pokeball, I restrained myself from decking the smug smile off Theo's face.

"Go, pyrite!" I said, sending out the horse.

"Palij, use Flame Burst!" Theo yelled again. Although the attack did significant damage on pyrite, Palij's defense left a lot to be desired, and a couple rounds of Headbutt caused it to collapse to the ground, dizzy and fainted.

Poor pyrite's steely plates were glowing red hot and softening from the heat. I quickly applied a cooling burn heal and returned it to its ball.

So, Theo had left only his starter. "Go, Ellie!" he called it. A huge blue creature with muscly, sparking fins lining its body emerged. So Eletux had evolved. Cool.

"Geddover here kitty," I drawled.

There was no response. "Yo!" I looked over my shoulder and saw kitty sitting on the bar, being petted and scratched by adoring patrons.

I walked over to the bar, shouldered my way through the crowd and grabbed onto kitty with both hands. It let out a yowl.

"It's having such a good time here, dear," an old woman said to me, giving kitty another claw under the chin while it purred luxuriously. I yanked firmly on its belly and it hopped down reluctantly while the cluster of elderly fans clucked and tutted.

They followed me over though, and provided us with an audience while I ripped into Theo.

"Ellie, use Thundershock!" Theo said through gritted teeth, his face red. He was trying really hard to control himself in front of the crowd.

The plant matter on kitty's back absorbed the electricity and prevented the shock from reaching its body. The grass was a little singed, but that was all.

"All right kitty, use Leaf Blade!" I ordered confidently. Kitty lunged forward and slashed into Electruxo with its tail. A jolt of electricity ran down the metal side of the tail and into kitty. Bzzt. Paralysed. I scowled in irritation. Such a small advantage meant Theo still had no chance; this only served to drag out the battle.

"Kitty, use leaf blade again," I yelled and kitty managed to drag its stiffened limbs into motion. Electruxo brayed and with a final flash of its electric fins, fainted.

I was puffed as I rummaged around in my bag for a paralyse heal. Where the fuck were my medicinal items...?

"Are you looking for one of these, dear?" asked the old woman from before, handing me a vial of the yellow liquid.

"Thanks," I said.

"Can I feed it, please?" the old woman said. "It's so cute."

Theo's face grew more and more thunderous as he watched everyone fawning over my Metalynx. He treated his Electruxo's wounds with a lethal expression on his face and whitened knuckles.

I made my way over to Theo's side.

"Go away," he said. "I can't believe you brought all those people here to watch me lose."

"Sorry," I said. "They followed me over."

"Go away."

I leaned over to give Electruxo a pat but Theo literally smacked my hand out of the way. Wow. I'd seen him upset and throwing himself the world's largest pity parties before, but never... angry. This was way too adult for Theo.

I put up my hands and backed away.

"Just leave me alone. I'm going back downstairs," Theo snapped, and led his revived pokemon away, his bag hanging from one hand.

I respected Theo's wishes. Even when the ferry arrived at the Wheatfields and it was time to get off, I didn't wait for him.

As the crowd from the ferry dispersed to various country houses and resorts, I sat on my horse and rode slowly down the wide path which cut through fields of gently waving wheat. 'Vinoville Town – 15' a road sign informed me of the monstrous distance I still had to travel.

"Hey sweetie, got a minute to talk about God?" a neatly dressed woman waved to me from the side of the road.

"Sorry, I have to... Er..." Suddenly, very uncharacteristically, I couldn't think of a convincing lie. I closed my eyes in horror. "Er..."

"Come on," the woman said invitingly. I reluctantly hopped down from my horse and sat with her on a roadside bench.

"I figure you're from out of town," she continued amicably. "We don't have pokemon like that around here. Well, with one exception." Her face went momentarily dark. "But we won't talk about him."

She straightened herself back up. "So, tell me, are you religious?"

Does water float on oil? "Nah," I said.

She smiled. "Well you seem to be treating your pokemon well, so you have the beginnings of faith in you. We teach people to respect pokemon, the environment, and each other."

She handed me two flyers.

"These explain our beliefs in detail. But basically, we believe in the gods of day and night, light and dark – Aotius and Mutios. Together, they are like one deity which created the world, life, and everything we see around us. They still watch over us now. They give us the sun and water we need to grow our crops and feed Tandor."

I shifted uncomfortably. I knew how the sun worked – fusion of hydrogen to helium. And the rivers flowed because of gravity and the water cycle.

"But the sun's light comes from a nuclear reaction. And it rains because of evaporation from the sea," I said.

"Ah," the woman said, a glint in her eye. "We hear those arguments a lot. But where did the burning materials in the sun come from? What about the water in the sea?"

"Elements were formed from plasma which formed in the Big Bang," I recited, thinking back to physics class.

"And the Big Bang? Where'd the energy for that come from?" The woman smiled.

The crease in my brow deepened. 

"Have any of you ever seen these pokemon, Aotius and Mutios?" I tried again. One-way pass back to the real world, please.

"No," the woman said cheerily. "But we know they exist because we see the products of their activities all around us!"

"Well it must be possible to see them, or detect them somehow, if they exist."

"No, not in our realm anyway. Our definition of existence is inadequate... They exist in a different form – a spirit form. They're everywhere, all at once, they exist through us, through the things they have created." She lifted her hands into the air and breathed in the musty farm smells.

The conversation was rapidly throwing me into the void of existential dread. I quickly thanked the woman, stuffed the flyers in my pocket and got back onto my horse, making it run as fast as it could away.

I was forced to battle a few travelling trainers on the outskirts of the Wheatfields, closer to town. Well there wasn't anywhere to hide here unless I wormed my way through the grass, and there were children playing in the fields as well. I groaned.

Eventually, finally, I reached the sign welcoming me to Vinoville Town. I hurried past the church and into the brilliantly gleaming steel and glass building of the Vinoville Metals Research Institute. Sanctuary!

"Good afternoon!" the receptionist looked up and gave me a baffled smile.

I looked down at myself. I was covered in dirt, my eye bags were probably bigger than Bamb'o's, I was riding on a stone horse half my height and trailed by a cat with grass growing out of its back.

"Good afternoon," I replied.

"The Pokemon Centre is, um, just down the road and second left," she said in a friendly voice.

"Actually, I meant to come in here," I grumbled. I got off pyrite, sucked it into its ball, and quickly tried to tidy up my hair. "I'll try the spirit realm again another day."

The receptionist smiled sympathetically. "Welcome to Vinoville," she said with a helpless shrug of her shoulders. "At least the people are friendly. They won't force their beliefs on you, though they love to talk about their gods."

"So how come this place is here anyway?" I asked, relaxing.

The receptionist laughed. "Someone's gotta design the reactors and columns for the ammonium nitrate factories. Agriculture Department funds us."

I perked up immediately. Ammonium nitrate, I thought gleefully. For those of you who don't know, it's a versatile chemical that can be used as a fertiliser or an explosive.

"Is there a plant in town?"

"Yep," she said. "It's right out west though, where Sheldon has his gym. I'm assuming you're heading there." She gestured at the cat.

"Wooh, Ari!" a familiar voice accosted me from further inside the building. I looked up to see Solana waving at me. She was in her severe scientist get-up, but it couldn't hide the sparkle in her eyes. "You made it! Am I glad to see you! I've been trying to contact you for so long but Bamb'o has your number down wrong... Bloody typical."

"What's up?" I asked.

"Can I have my stylus blocker back? The one I threw you in Comet Cave?" Solana said. "It's very important."

I started to sweat. "I can't find it. It's gone."

Solana's breathing quickened. Oh no. "It's gone?! It's gone?! But it took us three years of work to extract all that material!" Her hands rushed to her face. "This is a disaster!"

I gulped. Three years? Wow, I'd really fucked up this time.

Someone emerged from the labs behind Solana. "Hey Lana, what's going on? Wait, there's Ari! Oh, thank god. Sheldon isn't going to kill us now."

"Right," Solana wailed.

I wasn't hearing what Solana was saying. I was staring at the man who'd just appeared.

"Oh, I'm sorry, my manners," Solana said miserably. "Ari, this is my postdoc, Morgan Pierre."

I stared. I stared some more.

Morgan Pierre was the fat man we had met in Comet Cave.

"We've met," I said lightly, trying to pretend I hadn't just single-handedly ruined the careers of two renowned scientists.

Solana palmed her face. "Of course. Sorry, I'm just a bit everywhere at the moment..." I smiled guiltily.

"Morgan took the job of obtaining a stylus to conduct tests on, and he followed leads to that cave. He was just waiting for a trainer to pass by who he could enlist the help of, and that's when you and that boy turned up."

Morgan Pierre turned up his hands and grinned. "I thought you'd take it better if I posed as an undercover ranger."

So that's why he'd been totally useless in a combat situation. Morgan was just a nerdy old scientist.

"I wasn't supposed to be here today, I had a tour at Epsilon Mine lined up, but with the explosion that's out of the question of course... Anyway! I get to be here to help work on our breakthrough! Now we've verified the Tractonite works just as it should – thanks in no small part to you – we don't need a stylus anymore. All we need to do is figure out how to mass produce it!"

"And for that we need the prototype," Solana was still wailing.

"No problem right?!" Morgan threw his arms wide and gestured to me.

"They lost it," Solana hissed.

Morgan froze. "Oh no."

"Oh no," he and Solana chanted in unison.

I gulped. "Sorry." I felt cold on the back of my neck, but it was probably just my imagination.

"Oh no," Solana said again, staring over my shoulder. "Here comes Sheldon."


	16. AN plant

"Greetings," said Sheldon, extending a hand to me. "I don't believe we've met."

"This is, um..." Solana giggled nervously. "Ari."

Sheldon gasped. "Brilliant timing! Come with me, everyone. We can test the breeder reactor out right now!"

"Shelly," Solana said. "The prototype is gone."

Sheldon froze in step. I closed my eyes.

"You're joking, right?" I heard him say.

"No," Solana replied.

There was the extended clearing of a throat. Probably Morgan.

"I wrangle for three years with the Agri Department to keep funding this little side project... Do you realise how many church sermons I've had to endure, to pretend I am interested in the inconsequential lives of those whose money I want? And it all comes down to... This? To nothing?"

"Come on," Solana reasoned. "We perfected the process for extracting Tractonite. It will only take us maybe six months to build up the stock again."

"Argh!" Sheldon said. "We were right on the brink! With such a big mass we could've started chain production in a week! The breeder reactor won't work with small masses. Who knows how much further the political climate will have degenerated in the next... six months!"

Morgan cleared his throat. "Uh, Sheldon?"

"Yes, what is it?" Sheldon's expression softened perceptibly when he realised Solana and Morgan (and me) were listening to his outburst.

"Remember that idea I suggested to you a few months ago?"

Solana leaned over towards Morgan. "He won't," I heard her whisper.

Morgan cleared his throat again. "Well, you designed the reactor to use the energy in irradiated Tractonite to clone the molecules, right? But like you said that only works if we have a lot to begin with. Well I thought maybe... Eh..." He was having second thoughts.

"Go on," Sheldon said, hands on his hips.

"What if we could produce it from scratch? From Tracton body plates? That's much more abundant."

"You're joking, right? Those are completely different materials!" Sheldon's eyes were wide.

"Well yes... But only by a few particles when you think about it. What if we fired those missing particles, which we could easily get from some radioactive source, at it with enough energy – they would surely fuse. We could mass produce Tractonite artificially – and it would be indistinguishable from the natural stuff!"

Sheldon was staring at Morgan. Solana was staring at Morgan.

"I can't believe it," Solana said. "Morgan, that might just work."

Sheldon started laughing. "Lana, you've mentored a beast. He could be the next me!"

"I think you mean the next me," Solana said with a wink and a laugh. "Who was it that suggested using Tractonite in the first place?"

Sheldon waggled his eyebrows.

"Hey," Morgan said. "Before you go off to get a room, can I show you these designs I did? Lana, I was thinking we could test it out at the Inhore particle accelerator lab. That way we don't have to wait for one to get built here."

Sheldon scoffed. "If we exposed these people to the power of the atom, they'd have a new god before long. They'll think it's magic. Alchemy. There'd finally be a glorious revolution, and Tandor would have to start relying on imports for food..."

He sniffed. "It's a delicate balance. They're happy with their stupidly simple lives, we have local food without tariffs. I continue to suffer."

"Come on Shelly." Solana stood behind him and gave him a back rub. "Morgan, that's a good idea. We'll get started right away. We can set off for Inhore tomorrow morning!"

"Lana! You were supposed to stay for another three weeks!" Sheldon whined. "Oh no... Now I'll only have my laboratory instruments for company again..."

But he wasn't complaining in earnest. He wanted the Tractonite just as much as he wanted Solana.

"I was going to challenge you at your gym," I chipped in in the sudden silence.

Three heads swivelled to face me. I waved and smiled. Hi, I'm still here.

"Oh, is that so?" Sheldon asked. "Well..." He sighed. He grumbled none too quietly to Solana, "If I have to endure another incompetent trainer with Cottonee and Glaslug I'm going to neck myself."

"Yo, kitty!" I called out. Kitty came running to me from where it was chewing on a potted plant.

"Well, this is my starter. And I have a Tracton as well."

Sheldon examined kitty curiously. The expression on his face had changed. "Cool..." he mumbled.

"He likes you," Solana said with a smile. I breathed a sigh of relief. It looked like Sheldon had moved on from the loss of his precious prototype.

"I also use steel types," Sheldon said suddenly, pulling at his lab coat lapels grandly. "The star of my team is also a Tracton. We shall see who reigns as the supreme pokemon master!"

Solana rolled her eyes. "Have fun collecting badges while I get a Nobel Prize."

"Do not mock my pure love for pokemon," Sheldon said, his voice high pitched. "Without Tracton, we would still be nobodies!"

Suddenly, before anyone could say another word, a shrieking alarm went off in Sheldon's pocket. "Pressure warning! Pressure warning!" a mechanical voice dictated before the shrieking resumed. "Pressure warning! Pressure warning!"

Sheldon grasped at the pager and I could see the sweat forming on his face.

"What's going on?" I said nervously.

"The ammonium nitrate factory," Sheldon yelled. "Overpressure in the reactor. Where are those layabout operators?! Why is nobody doing anything?!"

He threw off his lab coat and almost crashed into the automatic doors in his haste to run outside.

"You'd think they were abducted by aliens!" we heard his raging voice wafting back into the building on the breeze.

"Come on, we'd better go back him up," Solana said, ripping off her PPE. "Ari, you come too. We might need more strong trainers if there's been an attack."

Solana and I jogged together down the road towards the industrial complex in the distance, its colossal steel columns towering over the countryside and glinting in the afternoon sun.

I was wheezing before we got half way. But Solana was in even worse shape.

"Oh my god we have to stop," she gasped, bending over and clutching her belly.

"Get on my horse," I suggested. "I will ride on Metalynx."

I let pyrite out of its ball, and bless it, it did its mighty best to keep up with the yowling kitty who charged and bucked around trying to throw me off despite my increasingly desperate murmurings into its ear.

"Behave!" I yelled, and the tail sliced through the front tyres of a nearby parked car as kitty yowled. I closed my eyes in horror.

"Hey, Ari, something's wrong with it," Solana called out from behind me, and I turned back to look. My eyes flew shut again. Pyrite was starting to turn green. It had stopped moving and frozen in the middle of the street.

"Stylus attack," I explained. "Probably at the plant. We'll have to walk from here."

I noticed kitty frozen in position too, tail poised against the side of one of the tyres. I whipped out two M balls and sucked the pokemon in.

"Come on – I can see Sheldon," Solana said suddenly, and she broke out into a run again.

We caught up with him soon enough. Sheldon was frozen in shock at the perimeter of the factory. His pager was still beeping furiously, but he seemed to be ignoring it. A rumbling from one of the giant vessels was growing in intensity.

"Lana! I've never seen these pokemon attacking people before. Never."

We looked in through the chain-link fence. There, through a window, a room full of operators were being held immobilised, their eyes closed and heads shaking, under eerie beams of light emanating from... I blinked. I blinked again. UFOs.

"Am I going crazy, or are they..." I was lost for words.

"Yes," said Sheldon. "They are literally being attacked by aliens. Those are S51, an extraterrestrial steel-psychic type."

"They've always just hung around peacefully in the fields though..." Solana said, her brow creased in worry. "Sheldon, we have to do something about the plant!"

"I know," Sheldon yelled back, raising his voice above the sudden crescendo of roaring from the reactor. "I don't know why the pressure trip failed... Come in, Ari, we're going to have to fight those S51!"

There was a sinking feeling in my gut. "We can only use Tracton," I shouted over the din.

"What? You're joking." Sheldon ducked under the boom gate at the plant entrance. Solana and I followed.

"Lana, you're staying out here! It's too dangerous without pokemon!" Sheldon instructed.

"I'll try and help these people," she replied, pointing around at the fainted people lying on the ground who had already been attacked.

Sheldon readied his pokeball. "Go S51-A!" he shouted.

I grabbed his arm frantically. "I was serious! It won't work! The stylus affects all pokemon, not just wilds! We can only use –"

I trailed off as the mega UFO, Sheldon's S51-A, swivelled around, an soulless, empty look in its eyes. Even Sheldon gulped.

"Elaine?" he addressed it. "Elaine, it's me, Sheldon! Hey, it's me!"

The S51-A didn't seem to have heard him speak, and its hatch opened. A beam of light was coming out...

"Watch out!" I shouted, and leapt towards Sheldon, pushing him over just in time as a massive psybeam from the pokemon blasted into the space where he'd just been.

I ripped a pokeball from my pocket. "Go, Tracton!" I shouted. Tracton came out with its space-rending roar. "Tracton, use Shift Gear!"

My Tracton roared into motion as S51-A loosed another psybeam on it. The attack wasn't very effective, so Tracton took minimal damage. I was sweating. This was going to be close.

"Tracton, use dragon claw!" I ordered. Tracton moved forward with its newfound speed and power. Even so, the pokemon was barely damaged. It went on like this for some time. Tracton was getting weaker and weaker. The reactor's pressure was getting higher and higher. I could see the vessel's walls starting to bulge. I closed my eyes in horror.

I didn't want to die.

"Go, Solana!" Sheldon shouted. From beside me erupted another dragon roar. Sheldon's Tracton! I didn't have the time or energy to be amused at the fact he'd named it Solana.

"Solana, use Shift Gear!" Sheldon shouted, as S51s started to emerge from the control room and crowd towards us. "Ari, go into the control room and trip the reactor. My Tracton has got this."

"But..." I'd never been in a factory control room before! "What?! How?!"

"Just listen to the computer," Sheldon bellowed. "GO!"

The ground was starting to shake with the enormous pressure building up in the huge reactor. I sprinted into the control room. Good, there weren't more S51s than people, so I was safe from being attacked for now.

I ran up to the computer. 'Pressure trip FAILED' the display read, flashing red. Warning sirens howled around me. 'Activate manual trip?' I pounded on the 'YES' button on the touch screen.

A manic hissing could be heard.

The rumbling grew in intensity.

'Manual trip FAILED' the display read out. 'Manual activation required.'

I went cold. I looked out at the reactor. It was at least ten metres high. And at the very top, the lever for a valve. I started to sweat.

I knew about the Haber process. We'd learned it in chemistry. The contents of that reactor were at a scalding 450oC, probably higher now because of the pressure.

But that wasn't the worse thing about it. There was a reason I liked mines and the underground. I hated heights. Being high off the ground made me tremble like a nerd in front of the school bully.

"Sheldon!" I yelled. There was no response.

"Pressure critical!" a mechanical warning voice shrieked at me from inside the control room. "Activate manual release immediately!"

My Tracton rolled up beside me. But it was useless now. Its treads couldn't take it up a ten metre high ladder.

I gulped down the lump in my throat. I thought of Kellyn who was about to lose his only child. Not that I cared what he felt. But I thought of him anyway, and how much I knew he wanted to get to know me...

I gripped the rungs of the ladder. I started to climb. I did not look down.

I thought of Sheldon and Solana's blooming romance, which, although romance in general was repulsive, deserved more time to exist.

Almost there. I thought I heard my Tracton roaring from the ground, but the reactor was so loud in my ears by now I don't think I could've heard a dump truck driving through a nitroglycerin factory.

I thought of Theo, who was probably in town now, who was only just starting to grow up.

I gripped the lever. I pulled it down. Pressurised gas started to blast out of the reactor to the flare and the rumbling died down. I looked down...

Everything started to spin around me. My palms renewed their sweat production enterprise and I lost my grip on the rungs.

I fell from the top of the ladder, ten metres to the ground...


	17. Sheldon

Plop.

I could smell something burning.

So this was hell. I kinda had the feeling I'd end up here, take a wild stab at why.

Although I could feel a slight pricking of fire on my arms, it wasn't insufferable. Perhaps I'd be able to weather a couple of centuries before I necked myself.

Oh, right. I laughed darkly. No use necking yourself when you're already dead.

"Screee!" came a shrill, bird-like cry.

"Hello Satan," I mumbled. Maybe if I started sucking up early, I could rise through the ranks and get visiting privileges to the surface every now and then.

"Palij, over here!" a voice yelled. The bird-like cry came again and I felt myself being pulled downwards, my stomach rising up into my mouth.

I peeled open my eyes. Ready for the big entrance.

Bright blue sky accosted my eyes and I quickly averted them to stare down my surprisingly normal-looking body.

The burning smell was coming from my sleeves. My sleeves were lying very close to streamers of flame.

I was lying on the back of a Palij.

"Ari, ya loser!" Theo yelled. I realised the voice had belonged to him, and Satan was his pokemon. "Whatcha let go for? I just about had a heart attack!"

"You think you had a heart attack," I grumbled as Palij landed on the ground and was given a treat by Theo.

I got off the bird's back and wobbled on my feet.

"Thank you," I said reluctantly. Theo puffed out his chest and considered everyone around us with a stately gaze. I refrained from beating him over the head.

How embarrassing. Life saved by Theo. Almost as humiliating as being beaten up by Theo.

Sheldon staggered over to us, panting. I fought to straighten my bowing legs. "Fantastic work, Ari." A shadow fell over Theo's face as his five minutes ended.

"As soon as you tripped the reactor, the attackers fled and the stylus field collapsed." He shook his head slowly. "It's all so strange..."

S51-A floated after Sheldon and tickled his neck with its feelers.

"I can't figure it out," he grumbled again. His shoulders and head twitched spasmodically as he tried to move out of the line of attack.

"Sir," said Theo with a scholarly air, keen to force himself back into the limelight. "What is that thing hanging on your back?"

"That's my S51-A," Sheldon replied.

"No, the small one," Theo whined.

Sheldon jumped a mile into the air and his arms bent back, grasping at the rear of his shirt. He swivelled around. I saw the S51 gripping his collar. I giggled from the nerves.

He pulled it down eventually and it zinged in annoyance.

"Well, I have one of these already," Sheldon said dismissively with a flick of his wrist. (I gasped). "Ari, do you want it? It'll go nicely with the rest of your team, being a steel type."

"Awesome," I said, taking the pokemon in my hands and looking into its little beady eyes.

"Not f –" Theo checked himself on the verge of the tantrum. "I saw it first," he snapped to nobody in particular.

"Well do you want it?" I held it out towards him.

Theo turned up his nose. "No. It's not like it'll help me beat you. Why should I waste my time."

We ignored each other for the next twenty minutes as Sheldon and Solana cleaned up at the AN plant, reassuring the distraught operators and sending them home, calling in a backup crew.

The mechanical engineer was summoned to check the reactor for permanent damage. As the plant shut-down was in process, workers ran around with brooms chasing away the remaining S51, which, although now back to their usual docile selves, were a nuisance as they kept bumping into sensitive equipment.

It was only on the slow walk back into town that Theo started talking to me again.

"You're probably wondering when I got to the plant," he said.

I shrugged. I was actually still trying to process my near death experience.

"I saw you and that scientist and Sheldon running away from the lab, so I thought I'd better follow. I figured you'd screwed something up in there and it was going to explode."

I laughed aloud. "That's ironic."

"And anyway –"

"Shh!" I hissed abruptly, finger flying to my mouth. I pointed to Sheldon and Solana ahead of us. The wind was carrying their conversation back towards me, and I had heard some buzzwords.

"Dinner... chips... case of beer," Solana was saying. No, not those! I strained my ears and walked a bit faster.

"Fine, whatever," Sheldon replied distractedly. "But like I was saying... I fucked up, researching Tractonite so publicly. Might as well have painted a bullseye on the town square. Of course the rangers aren't going to like..." The wind died down and they moved out of earshot.

"What's going on?" Theo whined into my ear, pulling on my elbows.

I sighed. I thought back to what I'd seen of the plant and it suddenly all made sense. "Did you see that big grey building by the towers?"

Theo nodded, his head bouncing up and down on its springy hinges.

"That's where the ammonium nitrate is packed or stored," I guessed. "It'll be full of the shit. If the reactor exploded, that would go up too, then there'd just be a big hole where the town is now. See, they were trying to blow up Sheldon and his labs."

Theo's eyes were wide. "Woah..."

He started to jump up and down again excitedly. "Hey, is it because Solana has that stick which can block stylus signals?"

I rolled my eyes. "No, it's cos Sheldon never paid off his tab at the pub."

Sheldon and Solana fell back in step with us, flanking us on either side.

"You did good, Ari," Solana said with a big smile. I basked. Theo scowled.

"You'll have to come beat my gym later to wrap up the day," Sheldon said, in good spirits. I wondered what Solana had suggested to him.

I groaned regardless. I'd almost died, and had my life saved by Theo. This was enough action for the day.

But anyway, I didn't want to think about going up to a PC room and being all alone in the sudden quiet, so I followed Sheldon into his gym.

Solana gave him a quick peck on the lips. "I'll go close up the lab," she said.

I took in the modern decor of the gym and its computer controlled lighting displays. I almost smiled. At least I wouldn't get preached to in here.

"Come on," Sheldon said excitedly. "Tracton versus Tracton! Let's do it!"

He just about sprinted down to the stage at the back of the gym, stepping on the squares of light projected by the big flash lamps. He looked disapprovingly at me as I missed the patterns by a mile and trod on bare patches of floor.

After I'd finished tripping over myself, Sheldon called for the lights to be dimmed and got himself into position for battle. In a mighty display of self-control, I reigned in my yawn. I was so tired.

"All right!" Sheldon yelled. "Let's get this started! Go, S51!"

"Get out there, kitty." I grabbed kitty by the scruff and hauled it to the battle floor, yowling all the way.

I settled in for the long haul. My strategy of choice for this battle was to use Leech Seed, then wall out any attacks dealt on me while I healed and picked off the opponent bit by bit.

"Leaf blade," I yelled again and again. My throat was getting tired of forming 'L' and 'B' sounds.

Eventually, as Sheldon was commandeering his third pokemon, a Gararewl (what pyrite would evolve into in another couple of levels), I gave up and just let kitty do whatever it wanted. Besides leech seed, which I told it not to use, it also knew leaf blade, slash and metal claw. All were pretty similar choices in these circumstances, so I stood back and napped on my feet.

"Gararewl, Iron Defense!" I heard Sheldon command through a fog of sleepiness. I grinned to myself. More time to rest up.

With a final clash of steely claws from the vicinity of the battle, Gararewl let out a defeated bray and crashed to the floor. I opened my eyes to see Sheldon adjust his glasses with a flourish.

"It's time!" he cackled. I cracked my back, throwing my arms wide. Bring it on. Kitty was still on green health, despite being very similar in level to Sheldon's pokemon. Leech Seed needed a shrine.

"Go, Solana!" Sheldon yelled.

I pulled kitty back. "Go Tracton!" I yelled in reply, punting its pokeball forward.

Roar! Roar!

"Shift Gear!" Sheldon commanded with easy confidence.

"Shift Gear," I copied. This was going to be close. Sheldon's Tracton had the speed boost ability, so I had to time my first and only attack just right – strong enough to KO the opponent, but before it had stopped raising its own stats.

"Shift Gear," Sheldon continued. I watched him carefully. He smirked back at me.

"Shift Gear," I gambled.

Both our Tractons were positively rumbling with energy by now. They both looked ready to rip into each other.

Now was the time. I held Sheldon's gaze and he held mine. He opened his mouth. I opened my mouth.

"I'm driving here I sit, cursing my government –"

I jumped ten feet into the air. My phone had gone off. "For fuck's sake!" I yelled.

Sheldon smirked. I whipped the phone out of my pocket and checked the caller. Bamb'o. I groaned.

"I gotta take this," I said. "It's my boss."

Sheldon shrugged and leaned back, face expressionless. I'd just given him more time to check stats and scheme. Great.

"Bamb'o," I hissed. "This isn't a good time."

"Where are you?" Bamb'o's tinny voice assaulted me through the earpiece. He was holding the phone too close to his face again. "I think I hear... roaring?"

"What's up?" I tried to usher him on.

"I just got - from Cameron, he says - trouble at - - Zeta... I checked your pokepod, and - Vinoville, right? Get out of - right now."

"Huh?!" I struggled to hear over the clashes and clamours of the Tractons, and the amount of static noise Bamb'o's proximity to the mike was generating.

"Get out of town!" Bamb'o yelled through the phone. "There's going to be another explosion!"

"No, don't worry," I yelled back. "We sorted it out. The reactor is fine!" I was so confused.

"What are you talking about?!" Bamb'o hollered. I winced as the static blasted into my ear. "- - Plant - is going to - up, Ari, the reactor - -."

"Slow down," I yelled. "Look, I'll call you back in five, okay? I just need to finish this up then I'll go somewhere quieter."

I hurriedly hung up before Bamb'o could assault me with any more white noise.

I turned back to Sheldon. This was it. I had to get that attack out now – I still had kitty and pyrite if it wasn't a OHKO.

"Tracton," I yelled.

"Solana," Sheldon yelled.

"Use Dragon Claw!" "Use Shift Gear!"

My gamble had paid off. Sheldon had been preparing for a mega hit, and got too cocky with his 6x boosted speed.

Tracton ripped into Sheldon's Tracton and with a colossal screeching of metal, tore right through its body.

"All right!" I whooped. Sheldon was sweating and clutching at his brow. "Come on Solana. Come on!"

But it was too much. Solana fainted with a final roar and Sheldon's hands flew up to his face.

"Nooo!" he exclaimed. But his face was flushed with a passion I had not seen from him in the lab. "Ari, I wasn't expecting that outcome. Finally, someone worth fighting! That was sensational."

He reached into a small box on the shelf in the corner, puffing.

"Here, take my pixel badge. See how it fluoresces in the dark? The possibilities of the atom never cease to amaze me. I hope this changes your life."

Sheldon reached out to place the badge in my hand.

BOOM! A huge blast slammed into the gym's walls. We were both thrown off our feet. Sheldon's arms flew up to protect his head, and I scrabbled desperately for my badge. Gotta get your priorities right.

BOOM! Boom! Several aftershocks pounded the building, and the lights went out with a sudden surge of electricity that sent sparks exploding from the bulbs.

"ARI!" a voice screamed from the front of the gym. "Ari!"

"Theo?!" I shouted back, blinded by the sudden darkness.

"Why aren't you answering Bamb'o?!" he yelled. "We gotta go, NOW!"

"But... But..." Sheldon was stuttering, back on his feet. "But we shut down the plant!"

"No dummy," Theo yelled, his throat almost going hoarse. "The power plant! Power Plant Zeta! There's been another Nuc-a-lear Explosion!"

I gasped. That's what Bamb'o had been trying to tell me. Oh no.

"Kitty, come on," I shouted, as Sheldon immediately grabbed his pokeballs and started the mad dash for the gym exit.

Unfamiliar with the layout of the gym, I crashed into table after punching bag after computer station. Kitty piled up on top of me, yowling. By the time I reached the exit, I felt I was ready to enter the afterlife.

"Solana!" Sheldon yelled for his human friend. "Solana, where are you?!"

"Help me!" a voice shrieked back. We all looked over towards the lab in horror. One of the walls of the steel and glass building had completely shattered, and the roof had caved in.

"Help!" Solana screamed again. Sheldon was already there, while Theo pounded across the street after him.

"Wait up!" I shouted. "Don't go over there! The rest is gonna collapse!"

"You should be ashamed of yourself!" Theo shouted back, puffing. "She saved you back in Comet Cave!"

I gulped guiltily. How was Theo so philosophical all of a sudden?

Sheldon dug at the rubble with his bare hands, tearing and ripping them in the process. Why was I getting a weird sense of deja vu?

"Stand aside, we've got this!" Two rangers in green uniform ran up to us, trailed by an Empirilla. "Empirilla, clear the rubble!"

The huge muscly pokemon reached forward and flung the huge blocks of steel and rock aside as if they were pieces of bubble wrap. Sheldon quickly backed away, and a ranger started to bandage up his hands.

I looked down into the remains of the building. There was Solana, trapped under a huge steel beam. Theo and I reached out to grab her hands, and as Empirilla hoisted the beam aside we pulled her out to safety. She was lighter than she looked, or maybe I was just ripped from carrying my kitty around.

"Oh my god that was terrifying," she babbled, tears streaming down her face. "I thought I was dead for sure."

"You all need to get out of here. You need to fly to Legen Town, where it's safe," one of the rangers commanded.

Morgan Pierre rushed up, his hands full of shopping. "Oh my god," he screamed, looking at the lab. "Solana, are you okay?!"

"No," she wailed, collapsing to the ground as her left leg gave way.

Morgan dived forward to catch her as Sheldon watched on sourly, his hands useless.

At that exact moment, a thunder-like rumble ripped apart the sky, and a huge green apparition with unearthly eyes and a ring over its bulging head appeared from the clouds and let out a space-warping screech, surrounded by the brightest and thickest radioactive green aura which put even the Baariette on Epsilon Island to shame. It felt like the apocalypse.

I stared at the sky in horror. Theo stared at the sky in horror. Morgan, Solana, and Sheldon stared at the sky in horror, paralysed in position.

Any minute now it was going to start raining fire.

Pew!

I couldn't believe it. I blinked and looked again. No mistaking it. The ground was on fire, burning strangely under a globule of green gunk fired from the pokemon in the sky.

Pew! Pew!

"Watch out!" the rangers yelled, pulling Sheldon and Solana out of the way. "They're aiming for you! Quickly, get on my Staraptor!"

One of the rangers pulled a pokeball from her pocket and let the huge bird out.

"Hurry!" she shrieked, as more radioactive bullets rained down around us.

Sheldon sat at the front and Solana gripped onto Staraptor's feathers, her arms tight around Sheldon to keep him from falling.

The bird lifted off with a giant swoop as the rangers readied their Empirilla to attack.

I took the opportunity to point my pokepod at the thing. 'Error identifying species', the mechanical voice read out. 'Type: Nuclear'. Woah, that was fucking creepy.

It was descending.

"Ari!" Theo screamed in terror, shielding his eyes. "Dad!"

"It's no use!" the rangers were shouting, their Empirilla starting to groan in agony as the radiation poisoning set in.

"We have to bring it back," the female ranger said forcefully, even as her companion tried to push it to keep attacking, and returned the pokemon to its ball.

"Ari, I got wiped by the gym trainers, I only have one pokemon left," Theo wept.

"Well then let's motherfucking run," I bellowed, sparing Theo's innocent ears no mercy.

But even as I said it, I knew there was to be no running. The huge green creature was now hovering directly overhead, a hot, dusty, crackling haze setting in above our heads. I gulped down my fear.

"Go, Tracton," I squeaked, going for the tactic of speed.

Roar! But suddenly, I wasn't looking at Tracton. I wasn't even looking at the green pokemon whose edges were being blurred by the haze.

I was staring past them both, to the human being riding on the back of the pokemon. They stared straight at me through some sort of horrendous whole-body suit sporting a war-aesthetic gas mask.

I quaked in my canvas shoes.

"Tracton, use Dragon Claw," I rasped, my throat pinching from terror.

The person on the pokemon stared at me for a second more, unmoving. Then, as suddenly as it had appeared from the clouds, there was a blinding green flash and the entire spectre was gone.

Just like that.

I nervously turned to Theo. He was still crying. So I hadn't just had some ghastly hallucination then.

The rangers rushed up to us from where they'd been hiding behind a wall and ushered the two of us onto the returned Staraptor.

"Come on," they said, fanning the dust out of their faces, coughing. "You need to go, before it gets any worse. It's far too dangerous here."

"Thank you for dealing with it," the male one whispered to me. "I just about shit my pants."

I nodded.

And as we flew over the charred landscape, the rows of abandoned wheat fields which had been healthy and green just minutes ago, I had a lot of time to myself to think.

And think I did, just after I'd taken two millennia to recover from the shock of accidentally opening my eyes to survey the damage from the air.

Theo was still whimpering in front of me, gripping onto the bird's neck, but even if he'd wanted to talk, it would've been impossible with the wind roaring past us.

I couldn't answer all of my questions from the ship, but I think I had a lead on the mystery of Epsilon Island. I was right – something had been wrong about the nurse's recount. I hadn't fallen and hit my head. I'd been hit before I fell, I was sure of it.

And now I was more and more certain I'd been attacked to stop me finding out what was in the stasis tank.

I figured, by association, that the network of underground tunnels had also been built to hide whatever was inside, while it was transported around the region.

But what could it have been? What was down there in the bowels of Tandor? And how was it connected to the blue rangers, their all-controlling styluses, and the nuclear plant explosions?


	18. Route 11

We landed in Legen Town with minimal fanfare. Theo had stopped shaking by then and had turned around to mock my tightly shut eyes.

"I can't believe you're scared of heights, you loser," he said. "It's so fun flying on bird pokemon!"

"You're the loser," I said, but I was believing it less and less with each passing day.

Maybe it was Theo's ability to keep right up with me despite being so young, maybe it was the fact that he'd saved my life and seemed to be as fearless as he was volatile.

But I knew really that I respected Theo because I'd seen how much he cared about, how close he was to his father. I thought about my own relationship with Kellyn and felt a tiny... huge stab of jealousy.

What the fuck. I jabbed my arms. What was this touchy feely bullshit that had been infiltrating my mind recently, like a salmonella bacteria worming its way into an egg? This needed to stop.

It had been a long day. I just needed to wind down, then everything would be normal again.

"Where are you going?" Theo asked as I jumped down from Staraptor with a cadaverous expression on my face.

"To the pub, I can see one over there." I pointed. "I'm really thirsty for some apple juice."

"Meh," said Theo, disinterested. "I'm gonna call dad again. He isn't answering, so I'll try the ranger HQ next. They might know something."

"Kids." A ranger ran up to us, puffing. "If you've just come from Vinoville, I need you to come with me to the safe house – just to take your name, so we can make sure everyone's accounted for."

I shrugged. The pub wasn't going anywhere.

Theo and I trailed after the ranger, into one of the curious Legen houses set in the sides of the giant bricked-over terraces which seemed to make up the city.

I gasped as I entered.

It was like that scene in the hunger games, where Katniss walks through some unassuming bush and straight into district 13, the massive underground civilisation.

The voluminous building's open basement fanned down before me, packed to the seams with refugees from Vinoville, milling about the slapdash kitchen in one corner, the shower block in the other, and a million and one other functions in between – a makeshift hospital ward, where I could see Solana having her leg bandaged, a crèche where the unfortunate were trying to comfort their wailing offspring, a rest area where people were sleeping three to a bed, or just on piles of clothes on the floor.

The ranger ran a hand over his face, looking like he could really do with a beer or ten himself.

"I'm kinda glad you're just here for roll," he said in the tiredest voice I have ever heard come from another human being. He gestured lamely at the chaos down below.

"Trainers?"

I nodded and flashed my ID. Theo did the same.

"Thanks kids. You can go now if you've got somewhere to stay, though the pokemon centre was maxed out hours ago."

"We'll figure it out," I said. The dim light of late afternoon was still shining, so we could've made it back to Rochfale to overnight there. I would rather have thrown myself off a bridge at that point, but we could've done it.

I let out a beastly yawn which I couldn't hold back any longer.

Theo said he wanted to sightsee. I ditched him at the nearby stop for a city loop bus and headed into the pub. I ordered a cider and sat by myself in one of the ratty booths near the back.

I hadn't taken two sips before I was so fast asleep you could have clapped a pair of cymbals over my cranium and all that would've happened is I would've had a huge bruise on my head the next morning.

...

Unfortunately I didn't get to sleep until the next morning. At about 10.30 that night, I was woken up by something far more painful than cymbals. I had been set on fire. Literally.

"Oh my god, you're not hurt are you?" Theo said worriedly, immediately flicking off the cigarette lighter he was holding to my wrist.

I jumped ten feet in the air. "What the fuck?!" I yelled, slamming painfully into the back of the booth on descent.

"Sorry," Theo wailed. "You weren't waking up. I pinched you, I hit you, I poured your beer on you..."

He turned around to give the lighter back to a patron who had watched the whole exchange with an increasingly concerned frown on his face.

"What's going on?!" I snapped, looking groggily at my watch. I reached for my cider then decided against it. Who knew what the pet crimes of the Legen townsfolk were.

"Please come! Your dad is looking everywhere for you! I didn't want to tell him you were in the pub though, so I came to get you first."

I considered Theo levelly. I nodded to him. "Bruh, we're cool."

"No, we're not," Theo's wailing was rising in pitch. "There's been some sort of outbreak on route 11... and the rangers are getting overwhelmed!"

There was a stirring amongst the eavesdropping patrons in the pub. "Shh," I hissed to Theo, spittle flying from my lips. Ugh. I was becoming more and more enfeebled by the day. "You're only causing panic. Come on, let's go."

Theo and I hurried out of the pub, checking that the street was clear of Kellyn first.

"He told me to take you to route 11!" Theo whispered.

"It's okay, you don't have to whisper anymore," I whispered back.

Theo giggled. I felt a bit better. This was just like playing some stupid game we'd made up on the streets of Moki Town, just like the old days.

We ducked between the rows of shops in the downtown district, hopped between the terrace levels making ninja poses, and let our starter pokemon run amok.

But it was time to stop screwing around when we reached the entrance to route 11. A huge crowd of rangers and civilian trainers, wearing badges from all over Tandor, were amassed in the gate room. The harsh strip lighting picked out the wrinkles and moles on their faces.

Kellyn stood at the front of the pack. Sup. I raised my hand in a half wave. He didn't see me.

"I've called you back here to regroup – I think we're going about our task the wrong way," he said, his voice carrying clearly around the packed room. "To keep these hoardes of 'nuclear' pokemon from advancing, we have to work as a team! We've always achieved our best work through co-operation and trust, and we cannot forget that."

I glanced at Theo but he was listening intently.

"Myself and my best rangers will be stationed on the front line, and behind us I want all of you to form yourselves into groups of eight – we're going to assemble in a series of barriers, and each line of people will do their utmost to keep any wild pokemon from getting past them. With all of us here, we will have five or six lines of defense, and we are going to stop the advance!"

There was a hum of activity as the rangers and trainers grouped themselves with their friends and huddled close for comfort. Snarling and howling could be heard in the distance on route 11, and everyone knew the irradiated pokemon would be glowing unearthly green in the night.

It was going to be fucking creepy.

Rangers and trainers started to bleed out of the gate through the creaky wooden door, and Theo and I were swept along in the crush.

"Bags not row two," Theo whispered to me.

"Do you think we're gonna make it to row two?!" I snapped. "You'll be lucky to get to row five."

Theo seemed disappointed despite his nerves. Secretly he probably wished he could be in row two.

We picked our way down the sandy path, through some long grass, and stopped with a couple of rangers and trainers five metres back from the second last row. Theo and I were relegated to the edges, underneath the trees where Splendifowl roosted, their sleepy singing carrying down to us in the cool night air.

I kept looking upwards, paranoid as the birds stirred above me. I was just counting on one of them to shit.

The sounds of shouting and combat could be heard in the distance, from Kellyn and the front line. The ruckus gradually grew closer and closer, and that's when we knew there was no exaggeration about the onslaught. It was when wild pokemon started reaching the fourth line that I think we all started to worry.

We were less than 200m from the gate to Legen Town.

"Kitty, get ready," I said.

"Go, Ellie!" Theo said. I wanted to beat him over the head. It might've just been my imagination, but I swore he was actually getting excited about the prospect of getting some action back here.

Suddenly, a bright green three-tailed wolf burst through the fifth line, knocking one of the rangers off their feet. It snarled and lunged for my throat. "Kitty, leaf blade!" I shouted, turning my back and ducking to the ground as kitty leapt over me, clashed with the rabidly snarling pokemon and sliced the steely tail through its neck. They fell to the ground, entangled, with a crash.

I quickly pointed my pokepod at the fainted creature. 'Tanscure,' the voice read out. 'Normal-Nuclear'.

"Ari, I'm scared," Theo said, watching on with wide eyes. He was pressed against a tree. The darkness wasn't helping.

"You've got nothing to worry about," I said. "Nuclear is literally weak against anything. Just use your best STAB moves, sure one-shot."

"It's not that..." Theo said. He sounded like he was about to cry. "There's so many of them. What if some get past us? We're the last line... Then it's gonna be our fault when these things get to Legen."

"Don't be an ass," I snapped.

A fluorescing Ekans burst through the line and lunged for Theo.

"Argh!" he screamed, caught off guard, and his hands flew to his face.

"Kitty, slash!" I yelled, pointing, and kitty ripped into the snake.

"Think fast!" I told Theo. "You need to keep your eyes – kitty, Leaf Blade!" I broke to holler as an enormous nuclear Baaschaf with empty soulless eyes mercilessly bowled over a young trainer.

Kitty flew back and forth across my little patch of land at my command, hacking and slashing at the wilds. It was panting before long, as was Theo's Electruxo, and I switched out for Tracton.

It went on. And on. And on. I was exhausted to the point of accidentally pointing my pokepod at Theo once.

But it was working. Not a single pokemon had managed to break past us in line six.

And it was naturally just as I was noticing this, that the unthinkable happened.

...Well actually, if you've been paying attention so far, you probably could've guessed it would happen, but I had become so zombie-fied by that point it could've been Theo coming over to share his bottled water with me and I would've had a heart attack.

"Hey!" a shout from the front line came. "Hey, Empirilla! Karate Chop!" Kellyn roared. "Empirilla!"

More shouts followed, and soon even the snarling of the nuclear wilds had been drowned out by the frantic cries of trainers trying in vain to get through to their pokemon.

Surely enough, Electruxo stiffened up mere seconds later and began to glow green.

"Stylus attack," I grumbled.

"What?! Stylus... attack?!" the voice of the ranger beside me was rising in consternation. "Staraptor! What's the problem? Come on, it's me!"

"It's no use," I told her. "Just try to return it to its ball."

"Help me, Ari," Theo wailed. "Ellie, Ellie, come back to me!"

I handed Theo my last remaining M ball. "This will ball it," I said. (Don't laugh, I know I said 'this will ball it' out loud).

I whistled to my Tracton.

"Where are you going?! Don't leave me here!" Theo shouted in a panic.

"Just stay with these guys," I gestured at the rangers. "We're all friends now, right?" I mean, watching each other's pokemon get ripped apart for the common cause was an oddly uniting experience.

"Come back Ari!" Theo shouted.

But I'd already shouldered past rows five and four, and Tracton was roaring as it picked its way over the fainted wild pokemon littering the path.

"Hey... What..." people were shouting to me in shock as I passed by. I ignored them. I had to get to the front, to Kellyn.

It was getting harder and harder to walk. The pokemon were piled up a metre deep in places. As I stood on them they twitched or growled softly in their fainted state.

I pointed my pokepod at some of the rangers' pokemon as I passed, just out of curiosity.

'Staraptor,' the voice said. 'Normal-Nuclear'.

I recoiled in shock. The ranger's pokemon, nuclear type?! The ranger was staring at me too, a look of dismay on his face.

"What happened? No! Staraptor!" he wailed.

"How long have you been out here?" I asked him urgently.

"We've been here for hours, right since the crisis started," he replied, a tear forming in his eye.

Suddenly, a rumble in the distance ripped my attention away from the Staraptor and its trainer.

"Kellyn!" I shouted, resuming my charge forward. "Kellyn!"

"Ari?!" He heard me eventually, and swivelled around to try and find me. I could see his eyeballs reflecting the green glow of the nuclear pokemon.

"Oh my god," someone said.

"Aotius help us," someone else said.

Everything suddenly went quiet as first the front row then everyone after that turned to look towards the extremities of route 11.

I gulped.

Advancing towards us was a row of the blue rangers... And they were glowing in the dark! Just like the nuclear pokemon we'd just fought! I realised in horror that maybe the reason they didn't behave normally was because they were radioactive themselves... Maybe they were under stylus control from a big mega stylus somewhere... My thoughts raced. I leaned against someone's frozen Gararewl for support.

"What the..." Kellyn said. He had to take a moment to compose himself.

"Everyone back! Everyone out!" he shouted. "Get back into the gate and lock the door! Go! NOW!"

There was a chorus of screams as the rangers and volunteers legged it for the safety of the gate, some carrying their pokemon, some abandoning them in terror.

"Ari, what are you doing?" Kellyn roared. "I said get back, now!"

"I can help," I hissed. "Tracton is immune to the stylus."

Kellyn looked down at my pokemon and didn't say anything for a really long time. I wondered if the stylus had got him too.

"Okay, come with me then," he said through gritted teeth. "Let's go check this out."

We walked forward together towards the advancing line of blue rangers. My heart was in my mouth. I tried to focus on the sounds of Tracton's wheels rolling along beside me.

At least no Splendifowl has crapped on me, I thought to myself desperately, trying to find some positive outcome of this whole ludicrous escapade.

"Stop where you are!" Kellyn ordered, towering imposingly over all the blue rangers. Wow, the tall genes really did run in my family, I thought proudly, and drew myself up to full height next to him. "Stop right now! I command you as head of all rangers in West Tandor!"

The rangers stopped. I stared at them, my heart pounding. Were we getting through to them?

The next moment I regretted having gotten my hopes up. That just made the truth harder to deal with.

The sky began to glow green. Again, from where it was somehow levitating up in the air, the huge green apocalypse pokemon descended, the sight of the two little orbs rotating with the ring above its head making me feel ill. Its bright green haze enveloped everything in a mile radius, and that included us when it got low enough.

I coughed and Kellyn put his hand over my nose and mouth to protect me.

"Hahaha!"

I gasped with shock when I realised it was the figure on the pokemon's back who was speaking.

"Hahahahahahaha!"

It wasn't a happy laugh.

"I sense one of you has figured it out... Because one of you is a very clever person indeed, as I would know."

The voice was curiously child-like. I knew it was probably just a distortion caused by that hideous gas mask, but a shiver still ran down my rickety old spine. It was like those horror movies where the doll is haunted and it always turns out to be the kid who's communicating with the afterlife.

"Figured out what? What are they talking about?!" Kellyn whispered to me.

"That person up there, or maybe the pokemon, is controlling these rangers," I whispered back.

"Hahaha!" they said again, as emotionlessly as before. "There's no need to whisper. I can tell what you're thinking."

I suddenly knew who the voice reminded me of. Moaning Myrtle.

"You're wondering what this pokemon is called... It's called Urayne," they said, suddenly good-natured. "Urayne is my partner, and I need to do whatever I can to feed it, so it can help me in return to reach my goals. Hmm!"

Oh, that little 'Hmm!' was so Myrtle. I remembered closing my eyes during those parts of the movie. I still hated ghosts and spirits and even the idea of them. Oh my god, I suddenly felt like stabbing myself with a long sword. Why was I afraid of literally everything? What was my fucking problem?

I noticed one of the rangers in the line, a woman, twitch spasmodically when the name Urayne was mentioned. I frowned.

"What do you want?" Kellyn shouted upwards.

"Hahaha! You'll have to figure that out for yourself!" the person said, huffing through their gas mask. "But for now... There are two people in Legen Town the kid knows I want. And if you want to stop me getting them, you'll have to do so with your life!"

"Who is it?" Kellyn whispered to me with urgency.

"Sheldon and Solana, they're scientists from Vinoville," I whispered back through his hand. It was getting really hard to breathe in this air. "They discovered a material which can block the stylus signals."

Kellyn nodded slowly. "They could be our only chance," he said very quietly to me.

"I heard that!" the person on Urayne said, and I felt like climbing up there and ripping out their eyes with my bare hands. "You're intending to stop me! So I take it you really do want to die then... Urayne, use nuclear slash!"

"NO!" I roared, delirious in my exhaustion, jumping in front of Kellyn and dragging my Tracton with me. Kellyn's hand flew back towards him and he started in shock. "Tracton, Iron Defense!" I yelled.

Tracton roared into motion and hardened its body just in time as Urayne's attack crashed down on it.

"Now, Dragon Claw!"

"Half Life!" Urayne's trainer shouted.

Dragon Claw ripped into the generator on Urayne's left side and it let out a screech of pain as the green haze started to die away from that quarter of the field.

Tracton's motors whirred under the intense pressure as Half Life hit it and immediately drained a huge amount of health.

I sweated.

"Shift Gear!" I shouted. One more. We could only survive one more attack.

"Nuclear Slash!" came the order.

Tracton roared in pain as the burning radioactivity hit the soft flesh under its hard body. A critical hit! Tracton was left on 2HP!

"You can do it," I shouted. "Dragon Claw! Don't let me down!"

Tracton landed a perfect critical. The right-side generator of Urayne blew up in a cataclysmic mushroom cloud and, in a blinding flash of light, the pokemon somehow shrank from its original monstrous size to a small speck of a thing.

Kellyn and I stared at Urayne.

The person who had been on its back now stood beside it, and Urayne went up to their waist.

"Hahaha!" They didn't seem bothered in the slightest. "Urayne has merely decayed to its Alpha Forme... This isn't a problem. My rangers will just have to find me more fuel. We can go anywhere we want in the region via their tunnels, and nobody can come near us when the stylus field is in effect! Tracton is rare enough I'm not worried..." But they were babbling. I sensed they were worried. Worried enough to try so many times to kill Sheldon and Solana.

"And soon! Soon, those who have hurt me will bow down before me in front of everyone who matters in Tandor! I don't care what I have to do to get there. I WILL DESTROY THEM!"

The blue rangers gathered around their leader as if by the flick of a switch, and the group of them disappeared into the night.

Kellyn and I made our way shell-shocked back to the gate of Legen Town, where everyone was waiting anxiously for news.

"Kellyn, we were worried about you! What happened?!" one of the front-line rangers asked.

"Oh no, that poor pokemon," a nurse said, rushing up to my Tracton. "Let me fix it up."

"I'm okay," Kellyn told everyone. "We're both okay. Thanks to Ari... We're off the hook tonight. The leader behind the attack has been temporarily defeated... They'll be back, but we will at least have a while to recuperate."

He turned to me.

"I owe you for my life," he said sincerely. "Thank you."

I looked at my feet.

"You know, Ari, you're unbelievably strong... And to think I almost lost –" Kellyn trailed off.

"Lost what?" I asked, wrinkling my brow.

"It doesn't matter now." He spoke briskly when he answered. "Now, it seems we are unable to halt the advance towards Legen Town, so we must move with all haste. We will start at first light!"

He addressed the whole group of rangers now. He was thinking fast on his feet, I realised. He didn't want to let everyone know two specific people were the targets, for fear some coward would try to eliminate them. "We will evacuate the residents of Legen Town to Burole – see that it's done in an orderly and efficient manner!"

I shuffled on the spot as the rangers sprang into action. "Um... I guess I'll head back to Burole tomorrow too, then?"

"No," Kellyn said firmly, shaking his head. "Not you, or Theo. I want you to go to the most isolated place in all of West Tandor – Amatree Town, in the middle of the Baykal Rainforest. Nobody will ever find you there."

Kellyn rummaged around in his fanny pack. He drew out two discs.

"Take this, and give one to Theo as well. These contain the HM Strength, so your pokemon can clear a way through to the forest. It's blocked by tons and tons of rock on the best day."

He paused for a second and considered me with an odd expression.

"Go to Amatree, and don't leave until you hear from me, or one of the other rangers. Our unit's code word is 'Tanscure'. Do you understand?"

"Yes," I replied.

The conversation was over.

I tried to relax, but my heart was still thudding in my chest. Theo rushed over to me, grabbed my elbows and babbled about how terrifying it all had been. He looked really shaken. I felt bad that he'd had to be exposed to such an experience at the tender age of 12, but I also knew he would've whined about it for days if I hadn't let him come.

So I trudged back slowly to the pub with Theo, and passed out from sheer exhaustion in the corner booth, an image of the nuclear Staraptor and its distraught trainer cropping up again in my dreams.

Tomorrow, I would get back to my journey. But tonight, I would simply try to process everything that had happened without driving myself mad.


	19. Legen and Normalcy!

I woke up to sunlight streaming in through the grimy pub windows.

I stretched luxuriously, massaging the vinyl seat pattern which had been contoured into the side of my face.

I sat up and looked around me – there was my bag, there were my pokeballs, there was my kitty, a string of spittle hanging from its snoring mouth.

Everything was normal! I sighed in relief. What happened last night felt just like a bad dream, and it was all over now.

"That was a wild ride," I turned to say to Theo.

I blinked. Where was Theo? I looked around the whole pub. Where was anyone?

I poked kitty with my foot and it awoke with a yowl.

I stood quietly and listened. No sounds of traffic. No sounds of people. I could hear Splendifowl tweeting in the distance – if sound was carrying all the way from route 11, the city was surely empty.

A note! I caught sight of and grasped the ratty piece of paper on the booth table.

'I've already left for Amatree Town. I cranked open one of the windows so you don't get trapped in here and die. –T'

That's right, Kellyn and the rangers were evacuating the town today. That's why there was nobody here.

I examined the windows. Sure enough, one of them was open a crack, and I pushed it all the way out.

Kitty slinked through the gap easily enough but I had the devil's own time trying to contort my creaking joints into a suitable shape to fit through the window.

"Fuck's sake!" I snapped, my bag catching on the latch, my right leg losing its footing. My left arm shot out to grab the jam. I kinda hung there for a second, looking like I was sorely losing a convoluted game of 3D Twister.

"You'd better not be laughing," I snapped to kitty, which was standing on the ground staring at me serenely.

"I'm driving here I sit, cursing my government –"

"For the LOVE OF GOD," I screamed. I reached into my pocket with my free hand, trying not to sprain my ankle in the process as my left foot and the bag strap were solely supporting my weight.

"Hi Solana," I gasped, swiping left.

"Ari! Glad you're okay!"

"I'm doing great," I replied with a pinched laugh.

"Listen, I just wanted to let you know, Sheldon and I are safe. Kellyn told me to call you. He said not to tell you where we are, cos that thing can read your mind, right? But I promise they're never going to find us here, and Sheldon and Morgan are working hard on the Tractonite while I'm in the very nice hospital. We'll be back before you know it, and we'll help you take this bastard down."

"Sounds like a plan," I said.

"Call if you ever want to chat, okay? It's comfy but boring as hell in here."

"Sure. See ya," I said. I reached out my thumb delicately to hang up. My hand quavered under the strain of its unnatural angle. The phone dropped to the ground.

"Fuck!" I snapped. My nerves and my bag strap also snapped in rapid succession. I fell out from the window and landed on the concrete pavement with a splat.

I looked up into the reclining kitty's face.

"Great to know I can always count on you," I said to it with a champion sarcastic smile.

It sat there lazily and meowed back at me, leaning forward to lick my vinyl-pocked face.

I bummed around in the city for a little while, taking advantage of having all that space to myself. I climbed on someone's car bonnet and jumped up and down for lols. I drew a (actually very good, I tried) sharpie picture of kitty on a pet shop's door.

I lifted some fruit from the hastily abandoned central market stalls.

"Yo, catch," I called to kitty and threw it a grape. It plunged after the fruit with a manic yowling and skidded underneath a geriatric lorry, giving the vehicle another characterising scratch down its side.

Too quiet, too boring. I'd had enough of pretending to vandalise things so I grabbed kitty by the scruff and pulled it out towards Route 9, heading east from Legen Town. From there, I figured I'd cut back through Rochfale and Comet Cave, and hit the entrance to Baykal Forest from near Sr. Goldkorn's capitalism lair.

The training dojo on the fringe of town was still manned; I suppose ninja weren't afraid of very much. I emptied my now multiple wallets of loose change and maxed out kitty's defense EVs. If I was going to make it a tank, I was going to do it properly.

Kitty yowled non-stop about having to work, but the steely plates on its body shone with renewed lustre afterwards, so I was pleased. I thanked the ninja and wished him luck to survive the apocalypse. He gave me a serene look in return.

I got my second phone call as I was trudging through the long grass and piles of leaves on Pahar Hills. I'd just pawned some trainers on route 9, passed by the day care shortly afterwards (I imagined kitty breeding with anything and just about collapsed in hysterics), and was now taking my time dawdling to Rochfale, enjoying the sunshine and normalcy.

Maybe I wasn't such a fan of the dark after all... Great, another bullet to add to my ever-growing list of fears. I was really getting senile.

"I'm driving here I –" I swiped left.

"Hello, Ari," Auntie's voice came yodelling down the line, definitely not feeble enough for someone of her significant age.

"Hi Auntie," I replied.

"Have you been eating enough vegetables?"

"I had some grapes this morning."

"Very good," Auntie said with satisfaction. "I saw what's been happening on the news, with the power plants up north. I think you should come home for a while, until it all settles down. I'm sure Bamb'o can find some work for you in the lab."

"I'll be fine," I said. "I've got four badges. I'm like, elite now."

Auntie tutted. "Unless those badges are made of lead and cover your whole body, I suggest you get back down south right away."

I rolled my eyes.

"I can hear you rolling your eyes at me, Ari," Auntie's weedy voice threaded its way down the phone line. "If you don't want to work with Bamb'o anymore, Drake can get you a job at his friend's fracking company. He says you seem more mature now, and they're always looking for fresh young talent."

"Cheap labour more like," I grumbled.

"Think about it. I don't want you getting hurt. Your father would strangle me with his bare hands, especially after he came so close to –" Auntie shut her mouth abruptly.

I groaned. "So close to what?"

"It doesn't matter now," Auntie said brightly. "Just get yourself away from those power plants."

What was this goddamn secret everyone was keeping from me?! First Kellyn, and now even Auntie?

"I'm heading for Amatree. Look it up on Google Maps. It's in the middle of a rainforest, so it'll be nice and clean there."

I could hear Auntie deliberating with herself and clacking away on her equally ancient computer. "Fine. You'd better call me soon though."

"Bye Auntie." I hung up. I kicked up a shower of leaves in high spirits and continued my dawdle towards Route 4 and the rainforest. Kitty was drooling, probably in anticipation of the nice, clean air we would soon be inhaling. Kitty was like the pokemon manifestation of a Greens voter.


	20. Fisherman Luke

I slouched past the boundaries of Rochfale Town, my kitty slinking in time after me. I waved to Lily Cypress who passed me in front of the petrol station.

"Ari!" Cypress waved back cheerfully. "Long time no see! I'm glad you're okay, with everything that's going on..."

"My steelies are good with radiation."

Cypress smiled. "The Exp Share come in handy?"

I smiled guiltily. "Extremely."

I fished the Exp Share, shiny from lack of use, out of my bag and lofted it up casually, giving it a toss for good measure and a pro look. The hooks bit into my fingers. They started to bleed.

I smiled assuredly.

"It's been doing wonders for my S51."

I let my S51 out of its pokeball for the first time since Vinoville, and it zinged at me in annoyance at having been deprived of its liberties.

I equipped S51 with the Exp Share.

Or, I tried to.

I cursed as the various hooks and straps became tangled in a convoluted array around S51's ears and feelers. I tugged with increasing desperation and S51 screeched in increasing irritation.

Lily Cypress watched on with a patient smile.

"Anyway, so thanks," I said.

"No problem," Cypress replied. "You know, the PST you got back for us last time... We've managed to duplicate the circuit board with remarkable success, filed the patent yesterday, and we've signed a contract with a manufacturer starting early next year. But I really ought to give you one right now, seeing as it was you who made it all possible."

"Shucks," I said. Jeez... shucks? Was I turning into Auntie?

"It's just a short hop back to the lab. You can come with me now if you want."

Cypress hoisted the cylinder of gas she'd come out to fill. Damn, she must've been seriously ripped under that dress.

I huffed and puffed up the hill. I let my horse out of its ball. During my dawdle through the Pahar Hills, pyrite had evolved into a Gararewl, the rocky layer on its steely body peeling off like old scales, revealing shiny golden alloyed metal underneath.

I let myself again admire the horse, not for its bulgy muscles or stature but for how well its colour matched the name I had unwittingly chosen for it. I should just quit and become a psychic right now. I could trade futures and make a shitload of money doing nothing.

I pointed my pokepod at S51, floating along beside me, from atop the smooth back of the horse.

'S51. Type: Steel-psychic. Enter a nickname: YES or NO'. I clicked on YES with the keypad (think 00s flip phone).

I looked at Lily Cypress's hypnotically swinging gas cylinder. I thought of Auntie's latest long-distance ambush over the phone. I entered 'Shalegas'.

Cypress and pyrite passed through the hissing automatic doors. Workers turned to stare. I gazed back down the hill sporting a philosophic expression while Cypress scoured the filing cabinets for a PST.

I thought about my journey so far. My pokemon team was kicking ass, but I was turning into a loser. I used to be cool, but I had somehow contracted the disease of feelings. (Finally paying the price for not warding Theo off while I still had the chance.)

I realised sourly that Auntie was right – I had changed. But kind of like a powerful atom of Uranium-235 might transmutate into an inconsequential isotope of lead, which in addition to being useless was also still radioactive.

"Who the fuck are you, anyway?" came a mechanical voice from behind me. "Seriously, there I am just chillin' in my field doing my thing and some dumb ass human comes along, radiates me and then I end up in one of your balls. Like, for real? Get this motherfuckin' bullshit off my back at any rate, you're really cramping my style –"

I swivelled around. Lily Cypress giggled. "It's a spirited one." She turned off the PST she had been pointing at Shalegas.

I pointed to my eyes and pointed at S51. I'm watching you, buddy. The beady eyes stared back.

I took the device from Cypress, thanked her, lunged at my dispersing pokemon and left the lab for the long trek back down to Comet Cave. I almost made it. I was almost safe. I was so close.

"ARI!" boomed a voice from the beach outside Rochfale. I closed my eyes.

"Yoo-hoo, Ari! Over here! Wasn't expecting to see you down this way!" Fisherman Luke continued to yell.

I made my way over with a resigned sigh.

"Neat," he said, pointing at my S51, which I'd guiltily let follow me round for some fresh air. Kitty came flying out of the bushes with a yowl, a screeching Pahar ascended to safety and Luke leaned forward to scratch his old nemesis behind the ears.

"I've been waiting for someone to test my new pokemon on," he said with a conceited grin.

"Bring it on," I said, suppressing a yawn.

I proceeded to smash Fisherman Luke. I did send Shalegas out first to witness its 31IV, 1.1x defense (great catch) in action, but Luke's Cararalm was about five levels higher and had a powerful Crabhammer which pummelled Shalegas to near unconsciousness. Guess I'd have to work on those EVs first.

I pulled the flailing Shalegas back and sent out the yowling grass machine. Luke didn't stand a chance after that. Shalegas was still pulling EVs from the Exp Share while kitty hacked and slashed its way through the various ocean creatures which made up Luke's team.

I noticed he'd ditched the Frynai for a super OP Blubelrog to hit those grass types, but there wasn't much the poison frog could do against my steelies. I snickered.

"Wow, I still can't keep up," Luke gasped to me, panting as he tried to pick up all his injured pokemon. (They were evolved forms, so quite heavy).

I reclined on a rock near the battle arena. Kitty stretched out luxuriously beside me, sharpening its claws on the surface of the boulder and putting the mortal fear into Luke's Cararalm, which watched on from where its wounds were being treated.

"Maybe I can't beat you in a battle yet, but I bet I can crush you in a fishing contest."

Well, I knew which one I would rather be good at. I grinned lazily.

Luke folded his arms. "Mate, that was a challenge. Get over here."

I patted kitty, which had fallen asleep, and made my way over to Luke's angling station on the low jetty, ready to poach the fruits of the sea.

Luke passed me one of his rods. "This is a Good Rod. We had plenty left after the promotion for some reason. If you beat me, you can have it."

"It's on," I said, reeling in the line (that part was easy enough). I lifted the rod above my head. Luke lifted his above his head.

"Ready, set, go!" Luke yelled, letting his line fly. I gave my rod a flick towards the water.

YOWWWWL! It was like Satan himself had let out a yell embodying the very essence of torturous hellfire.

I looked over my shoulder. Oops. I had lifted too far. The hook had caught on kitty's ear. Kitty was now hissing and bouncing around in a circle trying to remove it, continuing to entangle itself even after the hook was freed. The reel whizzed round and round as the line paid out. I closed my eyes in defeat.

Luke grunted and huffed beside me like an amateur football player who'd been dribbling for longer than they bargained for. "It's a big one!" he yelled, struggling with his rod. I lifted my hands to my face in desperation. I was going to lose.

An image of Auntie popped into my mind, of her dragging me along to footie practise that one December before I was due to start high school. I think she'd seen that Moki High had several large sets of stairs, and she was concerned about my cardiovascular health.

The coach's favourite phrase (I mean, besides "Ari, stop slacking") started reverberating in my head: When in doubt, kick it out. When in doubt, kick it out.

My eyes flew open. Luke was straining with his catch, his rod bent double.

I took a deep breath. I examined the flailing mass of Metalynx and line in front of me. When in doubt, kick it out. I seized the rod. I seized kitty's scruff. I kicked them both out into the water.

Yowling all the way down, kitty landed in the sea with a splash. Its plant-matter-based body bobbed daintily back to the surface, and kitty kind of hung there for a moment, drifting along on the waves, the tangled line wrapped fast around its torso and drooling face.

Yank! We had a bite. Kitty was sucked back underwater. It started to thrash its legs and held itself afloat. I sneaked a glimpse at Luke – his catch had been hoisted into the air for the first time, an enormous Brailip, but his concentration was slipping – he couldn't tear his eyes away from the spectacle unfolding down my end of the jetty.

I let the horse out of its ball and tied the end of an escape rope onto it. I then lassoed the other end and handed it to Shalegas, which grasped tight with its feelers and floated down to slip the rope on kitty.

"Pull!" I gave the order to pyrite. The towering iron beast trotted forward, exuding pure brute strength. Kitty was lifted into the air, still thrashing. The rod emerged from the water next. And at the very bottom of the vertical chain, mouth firmly clamped around the hook, hung a flapping Frynai.

The chain inched slowly up the side of the jetty.

Fisherman Luke's mouth was formed into an O shape. His rod lay abandoned by his side, the Brailip given a new lease on life. He was mesmerised.

Kitty's front legs latched onto the jetty walkway and it scrambled back onto dry land, hissing its displeasure. The rod and the Frynai clattered up too in rapid succession.

"Stop!" I called to pyrite before it walked off the other side of the jetty.

I began to untangle the line from kitty's matted fur as Fisherman Luke made his way slowly over, his mouth still hanging open. This was not an easy job. Kitty flopped around, shook itself, groomed its legs and back and neck in a continuous montage of flying steel blades.

Luke silently handed me his Swiss army knife. I cut the line from around kitty's feet. Freed, it lay down on the warm timber jetty, purring luxuriously and absorbing the afternoon sunshine. Skin as thick as its skull, that creature.

"Well," Luke said after a long period of pained deliberation. "I can't say I've ever seen such a... unique method of fishing before. But I can't deny it worked." He shrugged and pointed at the Frynai. "You win."

"Yes," I hissed. I reached out a hand to high-five Shalegas. It smacked my knuckles with its nasty 'tude.

"I guess we'll just stick to pokemon battles... I'd offer you the rod as well, but..." He gestured at it.

"All good," I waved dismissively, trying out the wrist flick again. "I got what I wanted." I sucked Frynai into a pokeball before it dried out.

We parted on friendly terms. Fisherman Luke returned to the clubhouse in Rochfale. He needed a beer or seven to forget the desecrating of his noble craft which he had just witnessed.

I continued south with my slapdash team hovering around me and hopefully complete (I honestly couldn't handle carting any more ill-behaved pokemon around; what was I running here, a day care for hundred kilo beasts?), made safe passage back through Comet Cave, and soon found myself facing the towering twin trees which marked the entrance to the great Baykal Rainforest.


	21. Baykal Rainforest

I stepped into the forest.

Immediately the darkness, my old friend, came in to enshroud me as the sun was rudely denied passage by the thick canopy overhead.

Kitty purred and rolled around like it was home to the motherland.

I closed my eyes briefly and breathed in the musty fresh air, letting the forest humidity creep into my skin, listening to the tweeting of birds and the calling of Chicoatl, and the soft rustling of grass and leaves alike.

It felt kinda good to be immersed in nature.

BRRRRRRRRRMMM! ROAR! Crash! Clash, clank, beep, beep, beep!

My eyes flew open. There! Through a gap in the trees, I could see a chain link fence I hadn't noticed when my eyes were adjusting to the darkness.

I grabbed onto kitty and we made our way towards it.

We emerged from the dense forest a few metres short of the fence and suddenly it was light again. I gasped.

Stretching out before me was a glorious panorama of rock, dust, and machinery – a huge open cut mine with steeply stepped sides, so deep that groundwater pooled at the bottom and was being continuously pumped out.

The ruckus had been coming from a giant truck dropping its load of ore into one of the train carts sitting on a railway at the top, waiting to be filled so an engine could come and pull them away.

Davern's old workplace, the Baykal copper mine!

"Hey kid, what are you starin' at?" a burly worker ambled over from supervising the train loading and gave me a suspicious glare.

"I'm a visitor." I tried the old trick again. "Can I see the mine?"

"Off with ya!" the worker boomed. "We don't do tours here! Go on, get lost!" He waved his massive muscly arms. I had no choice but to retreat into the forest.

Security must actually be adequate here, I thought with a sigh.

I met a couple of trainers while picking my way through the undergrowth, and I thrashed them by a significant margin. For an update on levels, both kitty and Tracton were now at level 40, and Shalegas and pyrite at 32. I'd shifted the Exp Share onto blades (Frynai).

I'd almost reached what looked like a cave in the innermost bowels of the forest when I was spotted.

"Oh mah god it's Ari!" A high-pitched and extremely enthusiastic voice assaulted my eardrums. "Ari, come over and play!"

You guessed it. It was Amy, with her brother and parents, on a day trip to the rainforest to pick berries and catch Chicoatl.

"Look, look!" Amy chattered excitedly, holding out a basket full of fruits – blue, orange, red, yellow. "We can sell these in Amatree for pokemon!"

"No Amy, we're not going through to Amatree, I told you," her mother said with a frown.

"Why?!" Amy and Henry screeched together. "I wanna see Tiko!"

The mother sniffed. "Not until you're older, kids. Besides, we'd have to go through that horrible dark cave over there." She pointed.

"I don't care!" Amy yelled, not fooled in the slightest by her mother's scaremongering. "My pokemon are strong now, they can protect us! Watch, I'll beat up Ari to show you!"

"Yippee..." My voice trailed off as Amy, 100% serious, let her Splendifowl fly with a hyper whooping.

"Splendifowl!" she shrieked. "Use Hurricane!"

I hadn't even got my pokemon out! I quickly thrust the closest thing to hand, my hovering S51, into the firing line. It zinged in annoyance and took the attack in a direct hit.

"Dude..." I groaned.

"That was for the super potion!" Amy giggled hysterically. I had to physically rack my head to remember what she was talking about. Damn, her grudge ran way back. This child was dangerous.

"Shalegas, use Psybeam!" I ordered.

"Splendifowl, Hurricane!"

Shalegas was quick on its... feet... well, levitating force field I guess, as it didn't really have feet. It zipped out of the way of the whirlwind the bird practically had to blind itself to generate (as it was spinning so fast), and loosed a cannon of psychic energy straight into Splendifowl's head. Splendifowl reeled from the attack and let out a cry of distress.

"Air slash!" Amy cried, trying a higher accuracy tactic.

"Psybeam!" I yelled again.

In a flash, Splendifowl was back in action and whipped the air around us to category five plus, bringing the stinging, barely sub-sonic winds down on Shalegas. Inexperienced, Shalegas closed its little eyes and flinched.

"Rats!" I bellowed.

"Hahaha!" Amy giggled in delight. "See, mum?! We'll have no problem in the Anthell!"

Her mother tutted but I saw a slight tinge of envy in her eyes. Maybe she never got the chance to be a pokemon trainer as a kid.

"Shalegas, get your shit together," I yelled, returning the attitude. "Use Psybeam!"

"Splendifowl, use –"

That was as far as she got. Kitty came tearing out of the trees from where it had been lying in wait and launched itself into the air towards the oblivious Splendifowl.

I watched on in horror. Kitty barrelled into Splendifowl. Splendifowl screeched and beat back with its wings. Kitty hung on. Psybeam hit kitty.

Everyone gasped as the mass of brawling pokemon dropped like a boulder from the air and hit the ground with a mighty thud.

Amy coughed as the dust settled.

"Let's call it a draw," she suggested good-naturedly after a long silence.

I grabbed kitty by the scruff and hauled it yowling away from the Splendifowl. My face was bright red. "No, that was our fault," I grumbled, ready to be altruistic. "Here." I handed the little brat a couple of fivers.

"Yay! Mum, I won! We gotta go to Amatree now!"

I took kitty aside and jabbed it between the eyes. It meowed mournfully. I removed an M ball from my bag and waved it menacingly in front of kitty's face.

"Any more funny business," I snapped, "and you go right back in here. No questions asked."

I turned on the PST and pointed it at the delinquent.

"I'm a cat, Ari," kitty said. "What did you expect?"

"Yes, you're just a cat," I sassed back. "Just like pyrite is just a horse, and Tracton is just a Tracton. If you don't behave, you can ride in the ball just like the rest of them."

"So much for partners for life," kitty said, sniffing.

"Partners," I said severely, "listen to and respect each other. They work as a team. One partner does not set out to ruin the other's life."

"Melodramatic much," kitty sniffed again. But it sat back down on its haunches, tamed into submission. I turned off the PST and patted kitty.

"Woah, that was so cool," Amy said, breathing straight up my nose as I stood up, she was leaning so close. I jumped a mile in the air.

"Can you really talk to pokemon?" she continued excitedly.

My heart rate returned to normal. "Only with this machine," I said, giving the PST a wave before returning it to my bag.

"I want one too!" Amy shrieked. "I wanna talk to Splendifowl! And Chicoatl! I gotta go catch Chicoatl now!"

She and Henry ran off screaming back into the innards of the forest, each armed with a dozen or so pokeballs.

"Stay close, kids!" the mother yelled, sighing with the devil's tiredness in her eyes. She tidied up the berry basket; plenty of fruit had been knocked flying during the windy battle.

She turned to consider me properly.

"You're healthy as anything now, look at you," she said, smiling.

I laughed nervously. "Heh heh... You're joking, right?" I thought of the four days which had elapsed since I last consumed vitamin C in Belbeach City.

"Well," she tutted. "You know I mean compared to when you were little."

"Huh?" I asked, screwing up my brow. I was genuinely confused.

"You used to play nurses and doctors with Amy all the time, remember?" How embarrassing. You heard nothing. "I asked where you learned it from, and you told me you were in hospital a lot when you were a kid... You really don't remember?"

She'd taken cues from my blank facial expression. Auntie had never told me about this illness which had faded from my memory. What else didn't I know about my past?

"Whatever, it doesn't matter now," Amy's mother continued. "Your parents would be proud of you. You've come a long way."

"Thanks, I guess..." I said.

"GOT ONE!" came an exuberant shout from through the trees. Amy came tearing back towards us, her arms positively flailing in her excitement.

Henry was slower and whinged about her not waiting.

Amy let the newly caught Chicoatl out of its ball and scooped it up in her arms. "It's so cute! Look at it, Ari! It's so cute!" She cuddled it adoringly.

I reached out to pat Chicoatl. The grassy beaked creature cooed back at me, its eyes wide. I wondered how long these things had lived in the trees and never interacted with humans. I smirked as Amy bent down again to smother the terrified animal with kisses.

"Come on, we have to get going if we want to get home before dark," their father said, hoisting up the berry baskets.

Amy seemed to have forgotten all about Amatree and Tiko. "Okay!" she said, holding tightly onto her Chicoatl.

"See you around, Ari," she called to me.

"Take care," the parents said. And then they were gone.

The Anthell cave was a bit like one of those labyrinthine mazes which used to infuriate me to the point of me tearing chunks out of their vegetated walls, but with pyrite to ride on I didn't mind the continuous back-and-forthing which was needed to find the right path.

"Protect Anthell! Protect Chicoatl!" Ancient cardboard and wooden signs were pinned to the walls and lay decaying on the floors of the tunnels. "No Mining in Baykal!" Sad, lol.

Some had been spray-painted over and words were scrawled on top in faded ink: "More jobs for Amatree", "Electrification for Amatree".

"Tree Hugger."

"Climate change denier."

"Green loser."

"Capitalist pig."

It went on and on and the insults grew more and more graphic. Eventually the proponents had given up on the signs and just started scrawling on the walls of the tunnel. This was actually extremely entertaining.

A few dole bludgers were lurking in the cave smoking, and I beat them up with my kick ass team, sitting up on my high horse.

My pokepod saw some action for the first time in a while – a bird keeper lost in the woods decided to hit me up while waiting for his mum to come get him.

"I'm at the mercy of the insects now," he complained. "Wait with me till she gets here?" So I sat with him (his name was Ravin) and we played landlord for a while with a pack of cards in his bag. I kept pyrite out for those rock moves, and bashed up cohorts of insects which seemed to be swarming out of the Anthell I'd just emerged from myself.

"Thanks Ari!" he said to me when the 4WD finally appeared through the trees, crushing flowers as it approached.

Bird Keeper Ravin hadn't actually been that far from Amatree, although I might've been biased because I had the 4WD tracks to follow. After the shortcut through the forest, all I had left to do was pass through one final tunnel, and there I was, in the safest place in West Tandor, Amatree Town.

It was early evening by then, and the gas lamps lining the streets were aglow. People in traditional clothing were out walking on the cobbled streets, and occasionally a ute or big car would putter past, covered in mud and dents. I'd never seen anything like it.

The houses themselves were all standalone, and a few on the fringes of town were actually made from shit like mud bricks and corrugated iron. But everyone was smiling, there was dancing outside the restaurants and pubs, and a lively chatter complaining about the humidity and mines and dole bludgers reached me wherever I went.

This wasn't like the city where nobody actually talked to each other. This was like Moki Town, just even more backwards.

Inside the pokemon centre, there were shelves and shelves of traditional medicine, and nurses lining up ready to administer it. I left my team there for a rest after the long forest trek.

I looked around for a PC, but there was none. I turned on my wi-fi but there was none. I had one bar of data every few minutes. Great. It wasn't like there was anywhere to charge my dying phone anyway. The only thing still working was my pokepod, whose communications ran on satellite. I guess I'd be waiting for Kellyn's phone call on there.

I took my pokemon back and headed out to find some dinner.

But before I could get very far, a commotion erupted in front of one of the open bars. "Tiko! Tiko! We wanna see Tiko dance!" the crowd was chanting. The poor proprietor was being consumed by a tidal wave of drunken patrons.

He pinched his throat and yelled but his artificially piercing voice still couldn't cut through the melee.

"What?" "No!" "It can't be!" "Where?" The shouts stacked up on top of each other.

"He was at the mine this morning!" someone piped up.

"Anyone seen him since then?"

The shouts rose up to fever pitch and I couldn't make out anything more.

"What's going on?" I asked another bystander.

"I have no idea. Apparently Tiko went to the protest by the mine this morning, and nobody's seen him since," they replied. "Tiko is the gym leader here – see the gym at the top of that hill?"

My eyes followed the trail of gas lamps up to a stone building fronted with some big ass columns.

Suddenly, emerging from the darkening sky to the west, a huge green dragon with a bulb on the end of its tail (Hey! Just like the one I'd seen Maria's partner fly off on!) let out a shrill call and everyone went silent. Their heads turned up to follow the creature across the sky, and they gasped in unison as it flipped and rolled in flight.

"That's a Coatlith," my companion whispered to me. "They're legendaries of the forest!"

"If we follow it, it will lead us to Tiko!" someone shouted.

"Yeah!" was the general consensus.

"So who's gonna go?" "You suggested it!" "My pokemon are weak!" "It's too dark in the forest now." "Come on, you pussy." "Someone's gotta, before it flies off!"

"I'll go," I said.

Everyone went silent again. They turned to stare at the random. "Sup guys," I said, almost doing a wrist flick but quickly arresting my hand. "I've got strong pokemon. If someone comes with me who knows their way through the forest..."

"Bruno will go!" A group of squealing girls hoisted a groaning young man's hand into the air. I smiled at him sympathetically.

Bruno was carried through the crowd and practically thrown onto me. We looked at each other grimly, trying not to end up in any overly sexual positions as the crowd pressed in on us and everyone cheered.

So, I'd volunteered to go save a town's beloved gym leader in an unfamiliar forest full of poisonous insects, in the middle of the night, with no phone signal or GPS coverage, accompanied only by a complete stranger who several drunken girls claimed knew his way around.

Well, there was no use in complaining. It was time to get to work.


	22. Anthell Part 1

The inviting hubbub of Amatree Town faded into the buzzing and rustling of the forest as Bruno and I trudged back out eastwards into the Baykal. When the last of the town's gas lamps could no longer reach us, Bruno fumbled for a lighter and lit the kerosene lantern in his hand, and soon its feeble glow was giving us a couple metres' visibility.

The Coatlith had long since flown out of sight, not even slowing on its way eastwards, but Bruno seemed to have his own ideas about a search pattern.

"Yikes!" I yelled, and jumped ten feet in the air as a Chicoatl sprinted past us in the long grass, startled by the light. Chicoatl were cute and harmless, but my nerves were on edge in the dark and creepy forest.

"So, um, you probably heard, but my name's Bruno," Bruno said to me awkwardly, extending his free hand. "What's yours?"

"Ari," I replied, admiring the bags under his eyes which were accentuated by the poor lighting.

"Cool," Bruno said. "So I guess we should start in the Anthell; Tiko would have to pass through there to get home from the mine. This way."

He grabbed onto my arm and pulled me off my current path, but a couple of seconds too late. My right foot landed in a boggy swamp and a Folerog croaked from underneath it.

"Thanks." So he really did know the forest... I tried to discreetly shake the slime off my shoe.

"I've been here a while... Grew up in Amatree, used to be on the dole like the rest of them but the mine gave me a job. Now I get all the girls." He snorted while he giggled. He was really nervous.

"Guess you hang out in the woods a lot then."

"Yep," Bruno said, glad to have the conversational pressure lifted from him. He began chattering with more vigour. "The Anthell was always a good hang. Nowadays we walk to and from work; not many people have cars here. Only those rich soccer mum types, you know, whose kids raise birds and catch bugs all day cos their lives are boring and empty."

But Bruno looked sad. I had a feeling he would also like a car.

"I'm from Moki Town," I said.

"Oh yeah, down south!" Bruno said. "It'd be so cool to work on the oil fields... I guess that's what your parents do then?"

"Yep," I replied. I couldn't be bothered telling him about my convoluted soap opera of a life.

Bruno hoisted the lantern up and its dingy light reached the Anthell's entrance. "Well, here we are. There are some underground levels, we can check those out. Tiko might've gone down to train, he does that sometimes. We can hear him yelling down there."

The inside of the Anthell echoed in the sudden quiet. Even the dole bludgers had gone home. A Firoke dropped from the ceiling on a flaming thread and nipped at kitty's ears. Kitty hissed back and stepped on a Harylect, crushing it. There were insects everywhere. Gross.

"Something's up," Bruno said. "There aren't usually this many insects in here. Get your pokemon ready."

I grabbed kitty's scruff and pulled it back onto the path. I also readied Tracton's ball in case kitty's grassy body disagreed with the bugs.

"Yikes!" Bruno shrieked as a hoarde of Tricwe and Harylect descended on him from a concealed hive. He held up his lantern to defend himself.

"Drop it!" I yelled. "They're attracted to the light! Go kitty, use Night Slash." As Bruno ditched the flaming lantern on the ground and ran, kitty pounced forward and snarled at the electric bugs, slashing them into pieces with its sword-edged tail. The dark cave was a good place for this new move Night Slash, which was like a stealthier alternative to Slash, hitting with the element of surprise.

But there were just too many insects. Like, at least ten. I let Tracton out with a yell. "Dragon Claw! Go!"

Kitty and Tracton fought side by side, and eventually the tattered remains of the colony retreated back to their hive, leaving kitty licking frantically at its half-eaten fur.

"That was intense!" Bruno shouted, sweating, as the buzzing of the insects died down. "Woah!"

The kerosene lamp had gone out during the scuffle, and I heard rather than saw Bruno crawling forward, scrabbling around on his hands and knees trying to find it. I reached for my phone to use the screen for light. It was dead.

"This is gross, I keep putting my hands in them," Bruno said, referring to the fainted Harylects.

"Wait," I said. "Look."

To my left, like some sort of ghostly apparition, a halo of extremely faint orange light hovered at approximately ground level. I shivered. I suddenly felt like clinging onto Bruno all dweeb-like.

"Yo," I said again when he didn't respond.

"Yeah, I see it," he said nervously. "Come on, let's go check it out. There might be someone down there with a lamp."

We crept forward side by side, each keeping a hand on kitty who walked along between us.

Bruno was right. The halo of light turned out to be reflected from a source on a lower level, making its way up through the round open manhole which led down to it via a rusty metal ladder.

"Gentlemen first," I said with a lame attempt at a laugh.

Bruno fumbled clumsily with the rungs and lowered himself into the subterrain. I sucked kitty into its ball, ignoring its vocal protesting. There was no way I was getting the heavy steel cat down that ladder without at least one serious injury.

I could make out Bruno's outline when I stepped off at the bottom, so there was progress. I let out Tracton to rip up a stream of Firoke. Kitty was hissing loudly in its ball but it would be thanking me later, I thought sourly, as I wiped stinging embers off my legs from where they had missed Tracton.

"Over here!" Bruno cried as I was busy trying to help the released kitty crack its joints, stiff from their five minutes of captivity (I think kitty was just making it up for attention).

We hurried over to where Bruno was peering round a sheer mud wall, the light now bright enough to see the auburn colour of his hair and the bald patches on kitty's back. I quickly stopped to apply a potion to the ugliest bits.

"Tiko!" I heard Bruno say in surprise. I looked up. He'd gone round the wall. I snapped the cap of the potion and pulled the hissing kitty along, rounding the partition myself.

Okay, I was pretty surprised myself. There, sitting in a neat circle around a cluster of blazing lamps, was a group of... Intellectuals? My eyes opened wider.

Most of them were wearing shirts and taking notes in pads of white paper. A papier mache model of some sort of resort with hot springs and wooden huts sat beside... My eyelids were threatening to rip themselves off my face they were going so far back.

The model was sitting beside a dark, buff man wearing nothing more than a glorious, voluminous, fire-gradient-coloured skirt.

The man in the skirt waved at me. "What?" he said with a slight smirk. "You've never seen a man in a skirt before?"

"Nah, you're cool," I said quickly. I wasn't here to judge. I thought it was kinda sick actually. "I'm totally here for smashing stereotypes. Wooh..." I said, my voice petering out as I was met with blank stares.

"That's Tiko," Bruno whispered to me. "The men of his culture wear skirts as part of their traditions."

Whoops. "Sorry," I said with an awkward giggle.

Tiko smiled lazily. The glint was back in his eye. "So, this is your first time at a meeting of the In Sect. Welcome!" he said. Bruno and I looked at each other incredulously. "We're not actually about insects, but the pun was too good to pass up. ...Guys. Come on guys!"

Tiko waved at the other reticent members of the group and they shuffled outwards to make the circle wider. Tiko motioned for us to sit down with a wide smile. Bruno and I sat. I felt like I was in a movie.

"I guess we'll get back to our discussion then!" Tiko said brightly, gesturing to one of the women, a nerdy bureaucratic type with glasses and a smart blouse. "Marie, you were saying..."

Marie cleared her throat and gave us a quick smile, the light from the lamps reflecting off her pale face. "So I was just introducing our plan for Amatree's forced transition from mining to a tourism and services based economy," she said.

Further and further down the rabbit hole. I sneaked a glance at Tiko's rapt expression and then looked back at Bruno – he gave me an equally confused and slightly terrified smile.

"Like they say, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em and then beat 'em from the inside – so I travelled to Burole and read economics case studies at the library all week. I think we have many marketable assets, namely the good environment, the hot springs, the quiet surroundings – there's a lot of potential there for country and health resorts, with hundreds of jobs in services roles..."

I zoned out. I took economics for one semester this year and all I remembered was that you got full marks for marking where the two lines crossed on some graph or other.

Bruno nudged me gently and I was pulled rudely back to the fiscal policy meeting I had somehow found myself sitting in.

"Should we tell him?" Bruno hissed.

"Huh?" I hissed back.

"You know, why we came to get him."

"Uh..." I tried to get my brain to work. The flickering of the lamplight on the walls was putting me to sleep.

Marie was still speaking. "...So, when there are enough tourism jobs for everyone in town, then any arguments FOR the mine will be gone, and we'll be able to turn the public opinion against it."

"Quickly," Bruno hissed urgently.

"Quickly what?!" I snapped back under my breath.

"She's wrapping up. Quickly, do something, before someone else starts speaking." He looked like he was being tortured.

"What should I do?!"

"I don't know! Do something!"

"...So yeah," Marie said, giving everyone a shy smile. She started to flip her notebook shut. Another woman started to raise her hand.

I stood up in a flash and began clapping thunderously. I pasted a big beaming smile on my face. Marie, Tiko, Bruno, and everyone else stared at me like I'd gone insane. I continued clapping. The big booming claps bounced off the walls and resonated, one on top of the other. My smile was unwavering. I started to sweat. I needed to say something.

"That was awesome, that was great," I said, still clapping. I gripped my hands to shut them up. "Hey Tiko, you wouldn't happen to know the time, would you? My phone died on me." I was gasping by the time I finished speaking. I had forgotten to breathe.

Tiko pulled out an ancient-looking analogue watch. "It's 6.20," he said with a baffled smile.

"Huh? It's 7.20," one of the others piped up.

Tiko laughed. "No it isn't. Or I sure hope it isn't, cos my shift at the club starts at half past six."

"Yeah, I thought it was weird you didn't leave then like you usually do," Marie squeaked.

"Wait..." Tiko looked round at everyone. He looked at his watch again.

"Goddamn it!" he wailed. "My old watch is in for repairs, and I never changed this one to daylight savings time. Oh no... There must be a riot in town by now. I've completely missed happy hour."

I tipped my eyebrows and gestured between me and Bruno. Tiko finally understood. He groaned.

"Guys, I gotta run. Feel free to stay if you want to." Tiko gathered his impressive skirts about him and picked up one of the lanterns, rushing past us and around the mud wall.

The swishing skirts fell silent immediately.

"Tiko?" Marie was the first to speak up, looking concerned at the door.

"Um hey... Bruno? Is this your pokemon?" Tiko's voice reached us from outside.

"I don't have pokemon, you know that!" Bruno called back. He looked at me. There was a sinking feeling in my stomach. I looked around for kitty. It wasn't with me.

I made my way to the partition, my heart in my throat, thudding painfully. I poked my head around the wall, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Hello old friend. It had been a while.

Past Tiko and his lamp, kitty stood in the middle of the path, pulsating green radiation, eyes empty and unseeing, frozen in grotesque position where it had been chasing after a Harylect.

I quickly pulled an M ball from my bag and sucked kitty in. I readied Tracton's pokeball in my pocket. "You gotta get everyone out of here," I said to Tiko. "There's been a lot of attacks like this. The wilds might get dangerous."

"I'm the Amatree gym leader," Tiko said firmly. "I can take down any wild pokemon here."

I shook my head. "Your pokemon won't listen to you. They'll be frozen, just like that." I waved kitty's pokeball. I saw beads of sweat starting to form on Tiko's forehead.

He turned and abruptly forced his way back into the meeting room. "Okay everyone, something shady's going on. Let's cut it short – head back to town and I'll see you next week."

"What's going on?" someone asked.

I didn't hear Tiko's reply. I had heard something coming from the passage leading off to the right, into the Anthell Deeper, and I was completely and unwillingly engrossed in a horror movie kind of way. I was by myself in the dark... But very clearly I could see, at the end of a passage, the outline of a door.

The outline was identical to the doors I'd seen in the Epsilon mine, power plant, and Comet Cave. The outline could be seen because something was behind the door, pulsating such a bright green that the beams cut right through the steel to reach me, showing the door up like a visible x-ray.

The door started to shake. Bang! Crash! Whatever it was was trying to get out. An ugly, discordant cry like nothing I'd ever heard before emanated from behind the door.

"Quick! Quick!" I heard Tiko shouting behind me, and the passage was lit with warm light as the attendees of the meeting rushed past towards the exit ladder and safety, holding their lanterns aloft.

As the lights were starting to fade, Tiko called to me from the bottom of the ladder. "Come on! We've gotta go!"

But I couldn't rip myself away. I gulped hard. With one final screech, the thing behind the blue rangers' door broke free.

They were here.


	23. Anthell Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoiler Warning: Tiny possibly spoiler-y bit involving Theo's father at the very end. It's very far removed from the story in the game, but the general conclusion is the same.

I closed my eyes, not daring to look. Welcome to Amatree Town, the safest place in West Tandor. I hoisted Tracton's pokeball and let it fly. There was Tracton's familiar, comforting cry.

I opened my eyes. Oh no. Oh no, no, no. My life had reached a fresh new low.

Tiko was standing frozen in shock off to my left, and in front of me in the Anthell Deeper passage was my Tracton. Glowing. Green. Stock still. I opened my mouth and screamed like Theo when I saw what had emerged from the door.

"SEIKAMATER!" Tiko shrieked, trying to scrabble up the ladder but completely missing the rungs in his panic.

"What?!" I gasped back. I was focused on the Frankenstein monstrosity... WHATEVER it was in front of me. It looked like a huge insect, but it was metres tall! Taller than I was! It had several colossal sets of wings on its huge, fat, body, and worst of all, it was glowing with that horrid green radiation which had now become synonymous with stylus control.

But why was the stylus working on Tracton?! I was really starting to freak out now. This was it. I was going to die.

"Get out!" Tiko yelled again, finally getting a firm grip on the rungs.

"Tracton!" I shouted desperately. "Tracton, use dragon claw!" But it was no use. Tracton didn't respond at all.

And then it happened. The huge insect, the Seikamater, Tiko had called it, let out its rending and twisted cry and a tidal wave of insects – Harylect, Firoke, and the disgusting foamy Sponaree, emerged from behind it, sweeping me and Tracton up on their hairy bodies. They got Tiko too and he was ripped from the ladder with a yell.

I was being carried away. I was aware that it was getting darker and darker, hotter, and wetter. I knew that we were going further into the earth, into Anthell Deeper. (Duh, I was a wannabe miner – of course I knew we were going down).

I reached out a pokeball and tried to suck up my Tracton from where I could see it glowing in front of me. Of course, there was no response. And I had given my last remaining M ball to Theo on route 11. SHIT!

I leaned forward as best I could and enveloped my Tracton in a bear hug. I wasn't going to lose this pokemon, so I gripped it tightly lest it be washed away in the insect tide. I thought about what my two M balls contained. One held kitty, and kitty, I'm never gonna give you up, so that left the other one.

Pyrite. Speaking purely objectively, I would ditch pyrite any day to ensure Tracton's safety. Tracton was invaluable in battles, whereas pyrite flailed against many opponents. But I was not a heartless person. I thought of abandoning the gentle iron beast, leaving it at the mercy of the blue rangers, and it was like thinking about pushing your elderly grandmother off a bridge.

I couldn't do it.

I gripped onto Tracton and held on as the insects scuttled and snapped around us.

"Hey!" Tiko shouted. "Ari, was it?!"

"Yeah!" I yelled back. Great to make your acquaintance, I thought, sweating. Shall we state an interesting fact about ourselves now?

"Ari, she's taking us down to her lair! Seikamater only wakes up once every few years, and when she does, it's to eat! I don't know why she was green like that, but it can't be good!"

I struggled upright as far as I could. I couldn't see Tiko in the dark.

"We only have one chance!" Tiko shouted. "Just ahead, to the right the way we're going, there's a link to a maintenance tunnel at the mine! You need to roll as far as you can that way, then when you see the green EXIT sign, roll off!"

"Okay!" I shouted back. I wondered how Tiko knew this. He hated the mine.

I leaned back and I saw the glowing sign approaching in the corner of my eye. This was the first electricity I'd seen in all my time at Amatree, but I guess this wasn't Amatree any longer. This was the Baykal copper mine.

I held onto Tracton. I started to rock towards the right on our bed of insects. They helped us gain momentum, their little legs collapsing and tilting us towards the right as they took our considerable weight in turn. My arms were screaming as I struggled to keep ahold of Tracton.

As the sign passed overhead, I put in one final effort and pulled us both off the insect river. I landed on hard ground, and Tracton's bulky glowing steel body missed me by mere centimetres. I lay gasping. The insects passed right by us outside the little passageway.

A few seconds later, another thud beside me, and I heard the rustling of Tiko's skirts as he rolled over from his tumble.

We lay in silence for a while.

"It's nice to meet you, Ari," Tiko said at long last. "I'm sorry it had to be under these circumstances. We need to move quickly – Seikamater will be coming along any moment now, and she won't miss us."

Tiko took a giant chain of shiny, barely-used keys from one of his skirt's many pockets. I watched him under the light of Tracton's radioactive glow. I stared.

Tiko chuckled guiltily. "We stole these as part of a protest – it's a master key for the mine. We really took them for a ride that day. Tee hee!"

He quickly unlocked the door to the maintenance tunnel, and I recoiled immediately as a blast of harsh white strip lighting assaulted my eyes from behind the heavy door. "My god," I grumbled.

"Oh yeah, it's like having a hangover, amirite," Tiko said, shielding his own eyes. "We almost got caught the first time just adjusting to the blasted light."

Tiko helped me push Tracton through the door, and we slammed it shut just as the Seikamater's cry sounded from further down the tunnel.

"Phew! That was close!" Tiko said, the sweat streaming down his face. "Good job Ari, you seem really capable! Can't wait for your challenge at the gym. Now, we just need to wait for the Seikamater to pass, and get out of here!"

The pulsating glow on Tracton's body was intensifying. I gulped. Tiko fell silent. He had noticed it too.

"It's coming from... in here?" he whispered. "This had better be a joke," he said savagely. "If they're performing experiments on pokemon in here as well..."

I furrowed my brow. Something was ringing a bell. "Wait," I said. "That's gotta be it. Seikamater came through one of those doors, so they've got access down here. This must be their base for developing new styluses! That's why this one is working on Tracton!" The words spilled out. The radiation really was good for the intellect; I was astonished.

"Slow down!" Tiko yelped. "'Those doors'? 'They'? What's going on, Ari?"

Oh right, I forgot, they didn't have internet here, and Harylect probably ate carrier pigeons. I sighed and explained about the blue rangers and the stylus attacks.

"Woah," Tiko said when I'd finished, his eyes wide. "That makes sense. This radiation testing would have disturbed Seikamater and woken her up. Maybe that's why security is so tight at this blasted mine too..."

Your protests probably have something to do with that as well, I thought uncharitably.

"Shit!" Tiko hissed suddenly. "Someone's coming!" Footsteps were echoing down the shiny, linoleum-floored corridor. Tiko grabbed onto my arm, I grabbed onto Tracton, and the three of us bashed our way through the nearest door.

I gasped. Tracton's glow had reached new peak level. I was worried it would be permanently nuclear-fied at this rate. Then I turned around and I was so shocked I couldn't even gasp.

There, staring at us from the far side of what looked like a very under-stocked lab, were two blue rangers, one of them obviously a head scientist or something (they were holding the stylus being tested). And beside the blue rangers, the third person's clipboard clattered to the ground and his mouth fell open into an O shape at the sight of me.

I stared at Cameron. Cameron stared back at me.

Then the head scientist lifted the stylus towards me and everything went black.


	24. Tiko

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoiler Warning: more possible tiny Cameron spoilers

I was aware of some pressure on my back. Everything was still dark and fuzzy but I seemed to have regained some semblance of consciousness.

"Just a second!" I heard someone yell. "I'm binding them up!"

That voice sounded familiar... deep and strong... that was Cameron's voice. Something cut sharply into my wrists, and I bumped into something soft, the impact sending shock waves through my bruised brain.

"It'll be..." I was losing my concentration. "Taking..." It was getting harder and harder to focus on my senses. I tried to peel open my eyes but the effort only served to push me further back towards the comatose state from which I'd risen.

"Uh!" Another voice, different from the first. "Ah..." Groaning. A strange mechanical sound.

I slipped back into deep unconsciousness.

...

"Ari."

"Ari."

I peeled open my sore, red eyes and looked up into someone's face.

"Oh, you're awake! Phew!" Bruno said, leaning back from over me, the little beads of sweat on his face glistening in the soft lamp light.

I was getting a strong sense of deja vu.

I lifted and twisted my head to look around the room. Slight soreness but it seemed to still be attached. Next to me were two unoccupied beds, and over on the far wall... shelves filled with traditional medicines.

"Eh..." I croaked, scrunching up my face. The room looked familiar. I tried to remember where I'd been before this, what I'd been doing. I had been with Bruno, I think...

"You're fine," Bruno said. "You're in the rest house in Amatree, yeah?" Right! "Someone called Stormbringer brought you and Tiko back from the Anthell... Funny name but he was a nice guy."

I ran a hand over my face. Anthell... That's right, I'd been fleeing with Tiko from the Seikamater. Who the fuck was Stormbringer? When the only time I had away from the drama was either spent in the throes of comatose oblivion or watching my pokemon being revived from the throes of comatose oblivion, it was a real struggle for my brain to keep up pace.

I barely had time to process one thing before the next crisis was unfolding. I needed a holiday from my holiday.

"Great," I said to Bruno, flashing him what I hoped was a healthy smile.

"Oh, lie down, the nurse said you should rest." Bruno rushed forward as I made to get up. Wow, someone was keen. What was his deal?

"If you're worried about your Tracton, it's fine. Stormbringer put it in a master ball for you, it's in your bag."

Well, that was a relief, I suppose.

I lay quietly for a few seconds, trying not to look at Bruno. He was hovering nervously and looked overly intent on keeping me in bed (seriously, what was up with that?!). My feet started bouncing up and down from boredom. My pokepod was in my bag, I could've used that to call Theo or Bamb'o or whatever, can't even. Whatever. Anyway.

Songs were starting to replay in my brain, bouncing irritatingly off the sides of my skull cavity.

"Hey Bruno," I said, faking a colossal yawn. "I'm super tired. Could you..." I gestured towards the door. Bruno immediately lifted his hands up and began apologising profusely, backing out of the rest house, talking non-stop, wishing me a speedy recovery.

Fucking weird.

I got out of bed. I stepped into my shoes and ground my heels into them without undoing the laces. The right one was too tight and wouldn't go on. I left it half hanging off my foot in irritation and ripped open my bag. Pokeball count – three M balls, two pokeballs. All present. I sighed in relief.

Who was this Stormbringer who took care of me? And what was going on with Bruno?!

"Hey," I said to the nurse behind the wooden counter.

"Feeling better?" she said with a smile.

"Yeah," I said. "Hey, when did he rock up?" I pointed towards the door.

"Bruno?" She giggled. "He followed Stormbringer in."

I frowned. "Stormbringer – what did he look like?"

"Oh, he had this crazy red hair, with a yellow streak in it. I'd recognise it again!"

I gasped. Theo! Stormbringer was Theo?! I groaned. Saved by Theo again. And it was just like him to use such an overdramatic pseudonym.

I had a lot of questions but the nurse spoke up again before I could ask them. "Tiko came with you – he was fine, thankfully. He says he's waiting for you in the gym, whenever you're ready."

I guessed the nurse couldn't answer my questions anyway. It was all coming back to me – the lab, and the stylus. I quickly docked my pokepod with the balls in my bag. Phew! No nuclear types! The levels were just as I'd left them too.

I let kitty out. It was sleeping, so I wasn't greeted with the usual hiss and yowl. I sucked it back into the ball.

As I walked out of the building, I wondered how Theo was feeling now he'd discovered his beloved father was a criminal mastermind.

The town was strangely quiet. I looked at my watch – 5am. I'd slept all night. Super early but I was wired as a circuit board. Auntie would be proud, I thought dryly.

Most of the gas lamps had been extinguished, probably to watch CO2 emissions. Seemed like something Tiko would authorise. It made for an ethereal walk up to the big stone gym, whose entrance lamps were still blazing.

There weren't even the sounds of Chicoatl, but the buzzing of insects never stopped round here. I stepped on a Tricwe and it was flattened with a crunch. It was kinda lonely without my pokemon out, I realised.

The doors of the gym were shut, but I could see... was that fire? dancing through the gaps in the wood. I lifted my hand and knocked quietly. There was no response so I pushed – okay. The door was unlocked.

My worst fear was confirmed. This was indeed a fire type gym. Blazing bowls of flames were placed in neat rows on the floor, and the dedicated were hard at work training in the corridors and arenas they formed.

I hoped kitty would have a nice long sleep.

"Morning," said the gym guy, way too perky for someone who'd been on the night shift. Maybe the forest vapours were narcotic, that would have explained quite a few things. "ID?"

I passed him my card and he wrote down the ID in a leather-bound notebook (like one of those visitor pads you see at seedy tourist attractions).

"Ari, is it? Well, Tiko told me to keep an eye out for you... He wants to thank you for last night."

"For what?" I asked incredulously. It was Tiko and his clandestine keys which had saved the day...

"I'd better let you hear it from him." The gym guy pointed towards the back of the cavernous building, where I could see Tiko dancing slowly between the flame bowls.

I was taking a punt skipping all the trainers in this place, but I figured Tiko was the most likely person to have a scooby about what was going on, and I was in the mood for discourse and enlightenment.

Besides, I'd spooked myself unnecessarily; blades was a level from evolving and Tracton could hold its own against fire (plus Palij and Firoke had pretty shit defense, so as long as Tracton could survive a hit we'd be fine).

"Hey," I said to Tiko, rushing up. I quickly dusted off the four badges on my chest and checked for scratches... Nope, all in order.

"Ari!" Tiko said with a big beaming smile. "I'm glad to see you're okay... I really sincerely want to thank you for warning me about the radiation last night, or all the members of the In Sect would've been... well, insect food."

"That's okay," I replied awkwardly. "So, what happened after we went into the lab anyway?"

Tiko sighed. "I was hoping you wouldn't ask. I don't know. I just woke up in the rest house fine as anything... really energetic though, for some reason. So I headed up here to pump it out. You were still asleep, but it looked like Bruno had you covered."

"He was acting so weirdly," I said.

"It's just him making friends, that's how everyone is around here." Tiko smiled lazily. I wasn't convinced.

"So I'm guessing you're here to battle me, at any rate," he continued, grinning. "It'll help take our mind off things. Come on."

I smirked. He'd just seen I had steel types and was ready for some easy money. Bring it on, fire skirts, you have no idea what's coming.

I readied Tracton's pokeball. After the first opponent, which was always weak to test the proverbial waters – I was an expert on gym leaders by now – blades would have enough exp to evolve, then it would be able to pack a punch with Aqua Jet with its sick adamant nature.

"Go, Palij!" Tiko called, sending out the flame bird as his opener. I was right. I smiled haughtily to myself and Tiko waggled his eyebrows.

"Go, Tracton!" I yelled, throwing its pokeball. Tracton emerged with its familiar roar, thankfully also in its familiar grey and yellow colours.

"Ah, so this is what Tracton really looks like..." Tiko said thoughtfully, the fire's reflection dancing in his eyes. "All right! Palij, use Flame Burst!"

"Tracton, Dragon Claw!" I gave the usual command. With its superior speed, Tracton zipped forward and slashed while Palij was still whipping up the firepower needed for its attack. It was a one-hit KO.

The exp share started to rattle as blades, the little Frynai, began its evolution process. Huge steel fins began extending out of its sides, and its body also started ballooning, like Auntie when she went off her paleo diet that one time.

I hurriedly rushed forward and unbuckled the exp share before it was ripped to pieces. With one final clattering of steel, blades grew fully into its new form – Saidine. I was ready to fight!

"Woah, OP man," Tiko said, raking a hand through his braided hair. I smirked. But Tiko was grinning. "Let's see how you like this. Go, Chimaconda!"

Tiko let the ball rip, and I gasped as a huge hulk of a violet creature, part snake, part lion, part unidentifiable, emerged, crouching forward on its front legs, growling and ready to exterminate.

Tracton cowered momentarily, its nerves shaken.

"Chimaconda's ability is Petrify – you see you've lost your speed advantage!" Tiko hooted with laughter. Hmm, we'll see about that.

"Chimaconda – Flame Burst!" Tiko shouted.

"Tracton, shift gear!" I shouted back. But indeed, Tracton was sluggish to respond, and the blast of fire from the creature's mouth hit and blanketed Tracton's steel body. Ouch. But Tracton had been toughened by the long rugged road it had travelled saving my ass, and soldiered on like a champion.

Roar! Tracton's motors roared to life, and it revved up until it was practically spitting electricity from its sides. I grinned back at Tiko, who pursed his lips.

"Chimaconda – flame burst!" he called again. Nice. I liked the repeating move tactic, it was more reflective of reality. You know what I'm talking about. #pokemon anime.

"Tracton, dragon claw!" This time Tracton was off before I'd even finished the command, and ripped into Chimaconda's fleshy sides. The creature started to ooze some sort of fluorescent toxin which didn't look good, but Tracton was unaffected.

Flame burst hit again, but Chimaconda was weakened by Tracton's boosted power. It staggered on its feet and struggled to land the attack properly.

"Hah!" I shouted. "Bring it on!"

"You wait," Tiko yelled back.

Tracton proceeded to rip through Chimaconda, a Firoke, and a Pajay. But Tiko's smile was unwavering. In fact, it was growing more and more satisfied, and I couldn't help but gulp when he reached for his last pokeball.

"Every trainer has a big weakness," he said, shadow and light dancing across his face. "And I think I've just found yours. Go, Inflagetah!"

Tiko's final pokemon exploded from its ball, and immediately began to dance on its feet, rushing from one side of the arena to the other, barely able to contain its enormous reserves of energy. The animal looked a little like a cheetah, but bright flames trailed from its body as it sprang back and forth. That thing must have monster speed. I gulped.

"Tracton, you know the drill. Dragon claw!" I ordered.

"Flags," Tiko said lazily. "Flame Impact!"

I gasped. Tracton hadn't even started to move forward, and it was pretty damn fast by now, when Tiko's Inflagetah darted towards us like the blitz and crashed down on Tracton's body, sending debris and flame erupting into the air. It returned to its trainer's side with a howl.

I looked in horror at Tracton. Already weakened from Chimaconda's attacks, it had fainted.

"Speed and fire!" Tiko called, laughing. "Your defense-based pokemon are all weak to fire! Tracton and Saidine are fast, but not fast enough, and they can't take the hits! What are you going to do now?"

I was still staring at my Tracton in shock. That thing was always invincible... no way... I quickly sucked Tracton back into its ball.

"Go pyrite!" I shouted, throwing out the horse. I felt really bad. I was about to push my figurative grandma off that bridge.

"Flags, flame impact!" Tiko said.

"Pyrite, brace yourself!" I shouted. "You can take it!" As Inflagetah pummelled into pyrite, it brayed in shock as its shiny steel body, now unprotected by the rocky covering, immediately began to melt under the intense heat.

"Good horse!" I shouted. "Now, use Metal Whip!"

With the last remaining ounce of its energy, pyrite staggered forward and whipped the thick metal cable on its head into Inflagetah's body, wrapping and squeezing the animal so it would be taking damage for turns to come.

"Get ready blades," I hissed. Metal Whip slashed into Inflagetah's side and its howled. But the burn was too much for pyrite and it fainted that same turn.

"Go, blades!" I shouted, quickly pulling the horse back into its ball, leaving the sharp barbs coiled tightly around Inflagetah. (Pyrite would grow those back later).

Blades got to see its first battle action. I knew I'd likely only have one chance to attack – make it Aqua Tail, which had a high chance of missing, or the weaker, 100% accuracy Aqua Jet? I would never out-speed Flags.

"Aqua Jet!" I shouted, making my decision.

"Flame Impact!" Tiko replied.

Inflagetah hit first, almost crushing blades despite the dampening effect of the water. Blades reeled but pulled itself together and loosed the dousing jet on Inflagetah's fiery limbs, making it yowl.

Inflagetah took damage from Metal Whip. It was on yellow health. I just needed one more attack.

Blades was taken down by the next flame impact. Shalegas I knew, in its unevolved, untrained form, would be a one-hit casualty. There was only one thing for it. I tightened my hand around my last M ball and shook it hard. "Kitty, you're up!" I shouted. Those 252 defense EVs better have been worth it.

Kitty yowled in complaint at this disturbance of its nap. But this was not the time for sympathy. "Kitty, use Leaf Blade!" I shouted.

"Flame Impact!" Tiko hollered, sure of his victory.

Flags barrelled, ultra effective, into kitty's body and it let out Satan's yowl again, staggering desperately as the flames bit in to its leafy body and steely plates. Kitty staggered backwards... its legs bent double... and it pounced from that crouch, ripping savagely into Inflagetah with both fangs and tail, landing a critical hit in its fury. YES! Inflagetah fainted!

Tiko's mouth dropped open. HAH! That's what $50,000 will do for you!

"Ari!" Tiko gasped. "I don't believe it! You beat me with a steel team! You must be a really legendary trainer..." He shook his head.

"I might have the lead on you in economic policy and fashion, but you sure just schooled me in pokemon battling. Whew!"

It was my turn to smile lazily. As Tiko started cleaning up the arena, I returned all my clapped-out pokemon to their balls and packed them safely in my bag. I hoped Bruno wouldn't be waiting for me at the rest house.

"Now, you're probably waiting for this..." Tiko said, glancing at my chest for some obscure reason. "Here's the Salsa Badge... good fight, Ari! I hope you will take a lesson from what you've seen here in Baykal as well – the environment is always to be respected."

I wasn't listening. I was pinning the new badge to the front of my hoodie. Urayne and its trainer had better be wearing sunglasses next time we meet.

"And as for what's happening down in the mine..." Tiko's expression darkened. "I don't know what it is, but I value my own life and the lives of my townspeople too much to mess with them any more. Please Ari. For me, for Amatree – please get to the root of it, and stop these people! I can see now you're capable enough to do it."

"Aye aye," I said, giving a half assed salute, but really just to test out how the badges fell in place when I lifted my arms.

"Thank you," Tiko said, his eyes boring into me. "And good luck."


	25. Lucille? What's going on?!

The long-awaited call from Kellyn came just minutes later. I was walking down the hill following the line of gas lamps, their wooden forms visible in the light of the rising sun, when my pokepod started to beep and vibrate: Call Incoming.

"Kellyn?" I hurriedly opened. I wasn't keen to hang around town for too much longer. Into the pokemon centre and out, before Bruno had any more time to smother me again.

"Ari, you're safe."

"I'm fine, what's up?"

Kellyn's voice was strained and grating. It sounded like he hadn't slept in days. "There's been an... incident at the Nowtoch police station. Do you remember the blue ranger we arrested there a while ago?"

"What happened?" I asked, a sinking feeling in my stomach.

"I think you need to see for yourself... I'm sending a ranger to you with a Staraptor – don't forget our code word."

Kellyn hung up after that, and I rushed the rest of the way to the rest house. Phew, just the nurse in there!

Not much later, as I took position halfway up the hill for visibility, the cry of Staraptor reverberated from the treetops around me. I looked up as a ranger and her bird descended towards me.

"Quickly, get on!" she called, waving, as the bird stirred restlessly.

"What's the code word?" I asked.

"Lucille! Come on!"

Suddenly, alarm bells were ringing in my brain. That was not the code word. My palms were sweating. I had to face my old nemesis, the split second decision.

Maybe Kellyn had been thinking about my mother when he made the call, and Urayne's creepy trainer read his mind and assumed Lucille was the code word.

This ranger was obviously one of the subverts, even though she wasn't wearing blue. I thought of what Tiko had said to me. If I went with her, I might be able to do some damage to the cell; I had a very strong Tracton which had beat Urayne before in battle.

"Okay," I said, taking her hand, and she pulled me up onto Staraptor's back.

We lifted off immediately, barely giving me time to get a proper grip. Oh no. I'd forgotten I would need to close my eyes during the flight. Flying blind would put me at a huge disadvantage. I forced my eyes open, my whole body quavering as I made myself peer over the edge of the Staraptor, squeezing its feathers in my fists until my knuckles went white.

We were heading west all right, but not south west towards Nowtoch. I watched the forest below me (a terrifyingly long way below, but I just sucked it up and clamped my mouth shut in case I spewed) give way to the charred Wheatfields of route 8, and in the distance, north of deserted Vinoville, soon loomed the remains of Power Plant Zeta.

One final thing was bothering me. Why was Kellyn thinking of Lucille when he called me? What had really happened in Nowtoch City?

Before the train of thought could zoom around in my mind much longer, the Staraptor started its dizzying descent towards the power plant, and I started to regret my decision. I was feeling sick from the height and getting severe FOMO anxiety about Nowtoch.

"Slow down," I gasped to the ranger, even though I knew it would be useless. She ignored me.

Down at the power station, I could see a pulsating green glow emanating from the ruined buildings, and I felt even sicker.

The ranger reached a hand out behind her. She was holding something. A stylus! It was pointing at me, and her finger was hovering over the power button! I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for the blast.

"LET THEM GO!" boomed a voice from the sky above. I gasped and my eyes flew open. I turned my head to look back upwards, which was a mistake as my entire field of vision started to spin and tunnel. I thought I saw a green blur.

The Staraptor picked up speed. The ranger turned back round to grip her pokemon, the stylus forgotten. From behind us, the delicate but powerful screeching of the forest legendary reached my ears. Coatlith!

"I SAID STOP!" The voice came again, clear and loud, and I thought it sounded familiar.

Staraptor was screaming from exertion as the ranger forced it to fly faster and faster. We were almost among the scarred cooling towers of the plant now, and I saw Sheldon's AN plant in the distance, its columns collapsed and broken by the blast.

"Ari, hold on!" my saviour shouted from behind us, and in that instant I was falling again, falling through space and clutching at the stars, completely disorientated. I felt myself thud against the ground but felt no pain or even the sensation of being supported by any solid surface.

I blacked out.

...

"Ari! Wake up!"

Someone was slapping at my face. My sore, red eyes flew open.

There was a change from the usual sequence at least.

"Oh, thank god you're okay. I thought I told you the code word," Kellyn said harshly, but I could tell he was really concerned. "Did you forget? You only had to ask me."

"No... I remembered. I just thought..."

"Thought what?" Kellyn said, furrowing his brow. "Thought you could fight them and save Tandor? Who knows what could've happened to you. That's enough, Ari. It's not your job to go round trying to play hero. It's not fair on me or Theo or Auntie or anyone who cares about you to put yourself in danger like that. I never want you to do something so careless again, do you hear me?"

"Unfair on you?" I mumbled sourly. "How can you claim to care after..."

Kellyn winced. I felt slightly bad, but not very.

"Their tunnels were in the Anthell," I continued, unable to stop myself from being a dramatic little turd. "You sent me right to where they could get me. So much for 'nobody will ever find you there'."

"I didn't know!" Kellyn exclaimed, looking both angry and frightened. "I never would've sent you there if I had! Why don't you try to do my job? Everyone expects me to know everything, but you know what Ari? I don't. I just don't."

He sat back in the bedside chair, puffing from his outburst. I'd never seen him so emotional. Maybe he was growing attached to me.

The nurse took the opportunity to check my vitals and ask me if I knew where I was.

I didn't.

"You're at the Nowtoch A&E," she said to me. "Maria called in a favour when Kellyn's rangers were attacked in Amatree." So it had been Maria's mysterious partner who rescued me. "You were hit with Psychic when they attacked the Staraptor you were flying on – you'll be dizzy for a while, but it's going to fade."

"It's already starting to," I assured her.

I turned to stare at Kellyn, who was looking abysmally at a speck of paint on the floor. I felt almost sorry for him, then I remembered it was Kellyn we were talking about.

That nagging question popped back into my mind and I hurriedly sought its answer before it took its leave again.

"Kellyn, what happened at the police station?" I asked.

He sighed. He straightened up in his seat, as if trying to bring himself back to reality, force himself to focus on what was around us.

"That ranger sat in their cell as if in a daze, without speaking, for 7 days," Kellyn said. "And today, they woke up, so to speak."

"Okay..." I said in the silence, waiting for an extension on this bizarre story.

"Here. We have a video from the cell."

Kellyn passed me his smartphone and started streaming a grainy, badly coloured video.

"Hey! Hey, somebody help! I don't know where I am!" the ranger called, rushing first to the bars of their cell, then to the window, running between the bare walls in a panic.

"3 o'clock this morning," Kellyn told me.

"Help! Can anyone hear me?!" the ranger shouted again. Two bleary-eyed officers in uniform opened up the cell and forced the cuffed ranger to sit on the bench, pinning them down by the hands.

"What's the problem?" one asked harshly.

The ranger looked terrified. "I'm not joking! I don't know where I am! What's going on? Why am I here?"

"You're in Nowtoch Police Station," the other said, a little more gently. "You were arrested for attacking a group of civilians and their pokemon a week ago."

The ranger gasped. "No! I would never do such a thing! There must be some mistake!"

The two officers looked between each other and exchanged a baffled glance.

"Look kid, I know you've had a lot of time to think while you've been in here," the harsh officer said. "But the ignorance tactic will never hold up in court. You can give it up right now."

"I'm not lying!" the ranger shouted in horror. "The last thing I remember, I was called to a job at the Epsilon Power Plant – there was an explosion! Kellyn's wife was in trouble at the mine!"

The officers looked at each other again as the ranger's voice rose another notch in their panic. "I followed my team down to the power plant bunker – we knew it was connected to the mine by an escape tunnel, and because of the collapse we figured that was the only way in. And that's it! We went into the bunker, and then next thing I know, I wake up here!" They were babbling in their shock.

"Is Lucille okay? Did they find her? So you see, it can't have been me behind that attack! I've been based in Belbeach for years, I can't even remember the last time I visited Nowtoch! How could I be here when I was on Epsilon Island just now?"

The two officers were sitting stock still, taking it in. There was a long, long silence. The ranger looked ready to break down.

Eventually, one of the officers spoke, the kind one.

"What do you think the date is?" she asked gently. "When were you called to the Epsilon Power Plant?"

The ranger's eyes were wide. "Just now, just earlier today... 15th November 2006."

The officers looked at each other.

The kind one turned to break it to the ranger. "Today is the 25th November," she said.

"Oh..." they cut in as the officer started to say something else. "So it really has been about a week. But how? How is that possible?" the ranger babbled.

She shook her head. "It's the 25th November... 2016. It hasn't been a week. It's been ten years."

The video ended here. I was staring at the screen in shock, my eyes going dry from overexposure.

I now understood why Lucille had been on Kellyn's mind.

Kellyn shook his head slowly, giving me time to try and process. "We think being in the concrete cell for so long blocked the signals from Urayne. So this ranger was essentially released from whatever control Urayne and its trainer had them under."

That was creepy as shit!

"I just... I don't even know what to make of this," Kellyn said, suddenly looking as tired as death itself.

"But I do know one thing for sure, Ari," he said firmly. "As soon as you're better, I want you to make your way across the sea from Route 4, and head to East Tandor. We know now that nowhere in the West is safe. I don't know much about pokemon training... but I think the last few gyms are over that way. I want you as far out of harm's way as possible, do you understand? Ride it out in East Tandor, we'll deal with it here."

I thought of all the times I'd helped out and saved Kellyn's ass and almost laughed.

"I know you want to help and I know you can... But you're just a kid, Ari. I want to let you be a kid while you still have the chance, seeing as I deprived you of that for so long..." He looked away with an unidentifiable look in his eyes.

"Theo is safe." I thought I heard Kellyn's voice catch. Why?! "Maria's partner picked him up in Amatree after the attack. He's already on his way to the east. He left a message for you, here."

I took Theo's note and squinted at it, my vision still a little blurry from the Psychic attack.

'You ass,' it read. 'You had to go fly off with the terrorists and get the town bombed up like that, didn't you? Tiko just about got a stroke when they got here. But I fought them off! Me! You'd better believe it, Ari. I mean, the person with the Coatlith helped too, but it was MOSTLY me. Seriously! Next time we meet, I'm gonna beat you and make you cry. –T'.

I smiled to myself as I scrunched up the note and passed it back to Kellyn. But something was bothering me about this. Why was I expecting something else? Theo... What was it about Theo?

I gasped when I realised.

"Kellyn, there's something I need to tell you, about the Baykal copper mine," I said urgently.

"Yes, what is it?" he replied, his face darkening over.

"Me and Tiko, the gym leader, were down in the Anthell last night for..." I stumbled. Kellyn wouldn't want to hear about my heroics. "For a meeting. We went through to the mine from there... you're never going to believe it. The blue rangers, they have a research base in the mine, making their styluses and shit."

Kellyn was watching me carefully.

"But this is the real shocker," I continued. "CAMERON was down there helping them."

Kellyn's eyes widened. He stared at me. He stared at me a bit longer. I bit my lip.

Oh no.

"That's not possible," Kellyn almost shouted, sweat forming on his forehead. "Cameron and the other engineers went back to the island after the evacuation... to try and stabilise the reactor. But they failed! My paramedics team found Cameron at Power Plant Epsilon this morning. He's in a coma at the hospital in Belbeach."


	26. Maskara Channel

"WHAT?!" I gasped, my jaw dropping open. What in the name of... I was a hundred percent CERTAIN I had seen Cameron down in the copper mine. There was no mistaking it!

"Don't tell Theo," Kellyn said darkly. "I don't want him to worry and come back here. I need you both safe in East Tandor."

"That's shitty," I said disapprovingly. "What if Cameron dies? Theo should be with him..."

"You're not coming back here until we sort this out," Kellyn said firmly, "Neither of you."

Of course. Why had I expected more from Kellyn? Despite the touchy feely sentiment fest we'd had on route 11, I had to remember Kellyn was still the heartless beast who had abandoned his vulnerable child in exchange for his job.

"I feel better," I grumbled, throwing off my covers. "I'm gonna head to Route 4."

"I'm serious," Kellyn warned. "Don't tell Theo."

There had to be another reason... Was Kellyn even telling the truth? I was sure I'd seen Cameron in the Baykal! What was even real anymore? Maybe I'd just become too suspicious of everyone around me. One of these days I would even start to suspect Amy or Solana or fucking Theo.

"We'll be fine here. We just need to find and destroy Urayne and its trainer. That's it. Those blue rangers will become normal again afterwards. The styluses are a bother... but we'll figure it out. I promise, Ari. Don't worry about it. Stop worrying, okay?" Kellyn's voice was passionate and his eyes bore into me intensely. I admired the bags under them. Wow. Someone hadn't been getting any sleep recently.

"Wilma here will give you a lift on her Pajay... Just as far as the route 4 surf route. Ari... please be safe."

I waved half-heartedly to Kellyn. Whatever faith I'd found in him had been shattered. Whatever! I was fine without him, I'd be fine again now.

It was kind of nice to have someone care about me though. Even though I paid him out for being a dick, I could tell that he did care.

I got the call after I hopped off my free ride at Sr. Goldkorn's capitalism lair. A familiar face popped up on the screen.

"Hey Solana," I said, cutting off 21 Pilots mid-line. I really did like that song.

"Ari, hey!" Solana's breathless voice came over the phone. "Whereabouts are you?"

"Just about to hit the high seas," I responded. "Route 4."

"Oh, good! I just got off the plane at Belbeach, I can get the metro to Burole. Wait up for me? I need a good trainer I can trust."

So she was back in Tandor. "Sure," I said. It would give me time to eat my lunch.

Kitty lounged beside me on the bridge as I peeled open the cling-wrapped sandwich Kellyn had given me. Kitty had taken a shine to its Master ball, I could tell, and didn't protest so much at travelling in my bag now.

I ate in silence. Kitty's tail flicked lazily. We watched Gentleman Sr. Goldkorn hand out marketing flyers to innocent passers by.

Eventually I caught sight of the dark blue shock of hair, tied back today. Solana was about to reach Sr. Goldkorn. A corner of my mouth turned up.

Goldkorn reached out with his propaganda. I saw Solana waving her hands in front of her, protesting profusely. She quickly ran past him and he chased her a few metres down the bridge before giving up. Lol.

"Whew," Solana said, gasping as she ran up to us. "That was creepy."

"He's harmless," I said with a flick of my wrist. "I thrashed him in a battle once."

Solana grinned. "That's why I need you."

"So what's up?" I asked, as we dawdled side by side through the long grass, towards Comet Cave.

Solana sighed. "The research isn't going as well as we'd hoped," she said. "Morgan's idea worked in the lab, but we just can't get large scale production going. I've been sent back to scope out alternatives. You know, get out, see sunlight for the first time all week, it's supposed to help your thinking, hah..."

"Probably good you came back," I said casually. "Just found out yesterday they've made a new stylus. It works on Tracton now, and people. They used it on me."

Solana groaned so hard I swore I saw the grass bending back in front of her. "Are you okay?" she asked, concerned.

"Fine and dandy," I replied. Wow, I was feeling charismatic today. Actually, maybe that was just being around Solana, she seemed to have that effect on people.

"No lasting effects, that's good at least... Argh! That's so frustrating!" Solana exclaimed. "What could be in those signals, then? Tracton's fangs can draw anything to it, alpha and beta particles, gamma rays, photons, literally anything!"

"What is it then? Dark energy?" I joked, making ghost hand gestures.

Solana stopped short in her tracks. "You could be right..." she said solemnly.

"I was joking," I said with a nervous laugh.

"Well you could be onto something. We know what matter's made up of and everything these days, but dark energy, dark matter... nobody knows that. I tell you what, if they've managed to harness that stuff, they've probably solved the secret of the universe."

This was getting too existential again. "Or you know," I wailed. "Tracton could just have been really tired. We were hiking all day in this insect dungeon."

Solana shrugged. "Either way, we're pretty much back to square one."

We reached the surf route beside the cave and stared out at the waves. Shit... How was I going to surf? Kellyn hadn't given me anything... I let blades out of its pokeball and placed it in the water, climbing onto its back. We sank.

"Wait, you don't have surf?" Solana yelled from the shore as I spluttered to the surface. "I do."

I dog-crawled back and blades trailed behind me in the water.

"Sheldon made me carry these as bribes," she said good-naturedly. "Like if I need a ride or something, or a hand from a trainer. Safer than carrying a bunch of money around. I literally said I'd call Ari and they'd take care of me, but Sheldon was convinced you'd been blown up or kidnapped or whatever."

"Thanks for the confidence vote."

"Well, you know, it wasn't statistically trivial with all the BS that's been happening here. Everyone in Zhery's been freaking out over the news –" Solana gasped. She clamped a hand over her mouth. "I said Zhery," she whispered.

I put my fingers in my ears. "Lalala, I didn't hear anything."

"It's too late!" Solana wailed. "It can read your memories! Oh no... Well, I guess the Tractonite's a flop anyway, so it's worth nothing to them to find us now."

I opened Solana's HM on my pokepod and taught Surf to blades. Bit of a useless move for a physical attacker, but I wasn't about to have to cart some weak pokemon around every time I needed to surf.

Solana and I squeezed onto blades' back. This was ridiculous. There was barely sitting room for both of us. Yet blades sailed along on the waves, totally at ease despite us literally crushing and immobilising all its steel fins. HMs, amirite. (Or maybe the surf was just really strong that day).

We headed north, rounding the bulge of Comet Cave on the ocean side (bit like a glorious short cut allowing us to bypass the place). We would turn for the corridor leading east a few hundred metres further, opposite Fisherman Luke's fishing jetty.

The wind billowed through my hair. I hadn't combed it in a while. I reached up to subtly work on the knots.

"This is really beautiful," Solana said sunnily. "I'm guessing we're headed for Venesi City?"

I shrugged lazily. "If that's what comes next." I tried to remember when I'd last seen my town map. What was that big piece of paper I'd used to smuggle cat food out of the pokemon centre...?

"That's great," Solana said. She sounded happy. "There's a friend I'd like to visit there. He works at the Epsilon Mine. Maybe some uranium discourse will jog my mind." Solana giggled. "You know how they're big on safety and PPE." It was my turn to laugh.

We turned east. I waved to Fisherman Luke, fishing serenely on his jetty. He started when he saw me, lifting his hand in a tentative salute which could also have been interpreted as a protective recoil.

I beat up some aggro swimmers who obviously hadn't released enough energy pounding the waves. These buff speedo-donning characters were all left blushing and spluttering and suddenly very interested in the sea floor corals.

I packed away my OP kitty.

We came across a small island sporting lax fishermen and a training dojo (HP stat though, so I fluffed around with Shalegas for a bit and left it at that). Solana was keen to get to Venesi so we stacked ourselves back onto blades.

We almost made it. We were almost safe. We were so close.

Solana squinted at the horizon. "Is that... Are those jet skis?"

I joined in the recon. Two shapes were converging towards us from the north-east and south-east. But they weren't sending up any spray.

A strong gust of wind blew past, but the water didn't stir...

"Invaders," hissed a voice behind us. "Trespassers."

"Ah!" Solana screeched, spinning around. What in the name of... The shapes in the distance had disappeared. The people they turned out to be were now mere metres in front of me, joined by two who had approached from behind.

They circled us menacingly, faces covered, riding crouched on Saidines which seemed to jump from place to place by magic. One cut close past us and I felt blades being dragged along by some sort of powerful current. Underwater engines?

"Hi," I said, waving awkwardly. "Nice day, huh?"

"You have breached ninja waters," said one of the surfers, scrutinising me from behind a balaclava-like hood.

"Surprising, didn't think they were man enough to breach anything," another sniggered.

"Yo, you wanna watch yourself," I snapped.

"At least I can do that without a microscope."

What the fuck? These were the worst dick jokes I'd ever heard. "Shit show, I wanna refund."

"Stay cool," Solana whispered to me. "Rise above it."

They snorted and laughed and closed in tighter around us. "We don't like bad feedback, especially from visitors. Now hand over your wallet and your pokemon!"

So this was robbery on the high seas.

I was getting angry. This had been a pretty good afternoon so far. I gripped kitty's ball and cursed myself for not opening a bank account.

"Your balls are just dropping down now, are they?" one of the ninja mocked me, tightening his grip on his Saidine and its sword-like fins. "Pity you'll only have four seconds to enjoy them if you don't give us your money RIGHT NOW!"

"They're acting like five-year-olds," Solana growled in my ear. "Don't do anything rash – it's not the end of the world to lose some money. You'll win it back. Rise above it."

The ninja and I hung in a stalemate, staring at each other. "Okay," I said eventually.

"Thank god," Solana whispered to herself.

I reached into my bag. I brought something bulky out in my hand.

"That's right," Solana said encouragingly. "Just give it to them."

I reached out my hand...

I slammed the shiny water stone into blades' steely chest. "You got it Solana!" I shouted, as the water started to churn around us. "I'm going to rise above it! Hold on tight!"

The ninja were taken completely off guard. They shielded their faces as blades let out a thunderous clatter of steel and started to raise itself vertically onto its back fins, throwing up spray as its body and fins lengthened and tilted up into the air.

"Ari, NO!" Solana shrieked, holding on for dear life to blades' thickening steel guns as the floor dropped away from beneath us. My arms were clamped tightly round blades' neck, the water stone still pressed deep into its body as my feet lost their hold.

It was like watching mountains form on the edge of two continents. Blades' huge steel body rose from the water and ballooned outwards until the ninja had no choice but to back away. When it eventually stopped evolving, Solana and I towered over them atop our mighty warship of a Daikatuna. I smirked.

I'd never really been into water pokemon, but this was fucking sick.

I let the now blackened water stone, void of any remaining energy, drop into the sea with a plop.

Another one for the dex, Bamb'o better have a bonus in store here.

"Holy shit Ari," Solana said, gasping, pulling herself onto an easier seat straddling the guns. "There's four of them."

"Meh," I said, waving. I was feeling cocky riding on this colossus.

"SAI! Use Aqua Jet!" one of the ninja suddenly shouted, totally without warning. His brothers joined in. "Faint Attack!" "Aqua Jet!" "Fury Swipes!"

I gulped. The Saidines closed in at once and poor blades was pummelled from all four sides. These Saidine weren't far behind in levels, my pokepod told me, and the evolution seemed to have mostly raised blades' attack stat, leaving its defense lacking. Solana and I gripped on tight as blades roared and wobbled on its back fins.

My eyes flew from one Saidine to the other. Which to attack first?! Blades was already on yellow health. I started to sweat. They were circling back round to attack again.

I ripped two balls from my pocket. Cheating, you think? No problem. Look who I was playing against. Guess the reach of the law didn't extend this far out in the Maskara Channel.

"Go kitty!" I shouted. I lofted kitty's ball into the air and it emerged with a yowl, plummeting down to land in the sea with a splash.

"Go Tracton!" I shouted, and Tracton sent up a tidal wave as it landed, pushing the Saidine back slightly. The sea was somewhat shallow here and its attacking fangs were left above the surface as it came to a rest on the sea floor.

"SAI! Aqua Jet!" They were coming again. "Kitty, leaf blade, north west! Tracton, wall it!" I quickly rapped out the commands.

My hand flew into my bag and brought out a super potion, feeding it to the beleaguered blades, using up Tracton's turn. Three Aqua Jets landed on my stronger pokemon and one on blades, leaving everyone in good health. It was working!

"Solana hold on! Blades, Aqua Tail, north west!"

Blades roared and surged forward, bringing its huge steel tail up and crashing down on the already weakened Saidine, sending up a blast of spray. Solana and I held tight as blades came back upright.

"Oooooooo," the other three ninja jibed as the fourth retreated on his fainted Saidine. The visible parts of his cheeks were bright red. "Ronin," they taunted. "We told you to cut out the dick jokes."

I patted blades on its steely head. The remaining ninja flocked in a quick confluence, whispering amongst themselves.

"SAI!" the leader shouted. "Aqua Jet! On the TUNA!"

So they were copying my tactic, picking off my team one by one. "Kitty!" I shouted. "Leaf blade, south east! Tracton, shift gear!"

As my pokemon roared into motion, triple Aqua Jet landed on blades, buffeting it from side to side. "God!" Solana shrieked, trying to keep her balance. My hands were gripped tightly on the steel rods in front of me. I was starting to feel dizzy.

"Blades!" I shouted. "Aqua Tail, south east!" I was going to spew. Blades' head plunged down like some ghastly showground ride, and its sword-edged tail slammed into the next Saidine, knocking it out. I shut my eyes tightly as the head came back up. Hold it in, you fool. Keep yo shit together.

"Juunin!" southwest ninja shouted. "We almost have them! SAI! Aqua Jet on TUNA!"

"Tracton! Dragon Claw, south west!" I shouted, my voice quavering. "Kitty, leaf blade!"

The attacks were too much for blades. It let out an enormous roar of fury and pain and started to fold down into the sea... "JUMP!" I shouted to Solana.

We made it just in time. The huge Daikatuna slammed into the water's surface, making Juunin yelp and rush backwards on his Saidine. The steel rods on blades' head poked out of the water at murderous-looking angles. I surfaced and spotted Solana. We bobbed in the settling waves. "Close," I said, pointing at the rods and mopping my brow.

The attacks from kitty and Tracton had KO'ed southwest's Saidine, which left only Juunin. He whooped in satisfaction, facing towards his defeated brothers and pummelling his chest. They weren't pleased. Ronin spat.

"Come at me!" Juunin hollered.

We came at him. With my tank of a kitty and attack-boosted Tracton, he was an exceptionally easy win. Without the backup of the others, lone Saidine was laughably weak.

"Oooooooo." It was the other ninja's turn to mock Juunin. He glared at me, red faced, and slinked away to join his jeering brothers. They'd backed off. We were being offered passage.

"Thanks, Ari," Solana said to me, relieved. "I'd never have made it through here alone." I imagined Solana trying to bribe the ninja with HM Surf. She was right. I straightened my back so the sun could glance off my badges.

"What's going on here, GIRLS?" a voice roared. My head snapped up. "Oh no," said Solana.

"H-h-hokage!" Ronin stammered.

"Boss!" Juunin cried, straightening up and trying to make his fainted Saidine presentable.

"Do you mean to tell me..." This Hokage squinted towards me, took in the various pokemon scattered around the battlefield. "That this... child... has beaten my best fighters, outnumbered four to one?" The colossal sea snake he was riding lifted its head from the water and hissed.

"Oh, boss, we were just taking it easy on them... Because they're just a child..." Ronin blustered.

"Nonsense!" Hokage silenced his minions. I gulped. "Child, what is your name?"

"Ari," I said, immediately regretting not hiding behind a pseudonym.

"Ari!" Hokage repeated. "Very good..." He pursed his lips, then opened them to reveal a wide, yellow-toothed smile. "Well done, for beating my fighters. They have spent years in training. It takes a very competent trainer to sweep them like that."

Solana and I looked at each other. The situation was taking a turn...

"Thanks?" I said awkwardly.

"BUT!" Hokage boomed. I smiled nervously. "My brothers and I still need to eat! And for that, I must annihilate you for your considerable wealth!" He pointed to my bulging wallet. FML, the bank was just two blocks down the road from Auntie's...

"Go, Tubareel!" Hokage roared, and the sea snake lifted its head again, baring its enormous jaws. The jaws snatched up a passing Frynai, sending steel shards flying as they crunched down on the hapless fish. I gulped again.

"Tubareel, use Crunch!" Hokage commanded.

"Go, kitty!" I shouted. "Kitty, use leaf blade!" I looked about as authoritative as a decorative monarch, treading water beside my fainted Daikatuna, but kitty zipped ahead anyway, colliding yowling with the snake in the centre of the arena.

We were considerably weakened from the fight with the ninja.

The huge jaws clamped down on kitty, whose steel plates absorbed much of the impact, but kitty still reeled from the attack and its leaf blade was nowhere near the critical hit I'd hoped for.

"Go again!" I shouted. "Leaf blade!"

"Crunch!" Hokage countered. The Tubareel's speed and attack were lethal. Kitty was barely hanging on with single-digit HP, and again missed the crit on leaf blade.

"Kitty, fall back, Tracton go!" I shouted. Tracton took the next Crunch face-on and staggered backwards, but I was certain it could out-speed Tubareel on the next turn. What else did I have anyway? Shalegas would be a one-hit again, pyrite was 16 levels lower than this monstrosity...

"Tracton, Dragon Claw!" I shouted, sweating hard. "Go hard!"

Tracton zoomed forward and sank its fangs into Tubareel's side, causing it to hiss and writhe. We were getting there.

But Tracton fainted after crunch hit next. Hokage grinned with his yellow teeth, laughing towards his brothers. "We will have hamburgers tonight!" he shouted in glee.

There was only one thing for it. I would have to rely on strategy and the hit-and-miss mechanics of probability.

"Go, pyrite!" I yelled, letting the horse out of its ball. "Use Mud Slap!"

Tubareel's Crunch hit first, but on full health pyrite survived the hit.

It then kicked up mud from the sea floor and pounded it into Tubareel's face. The attack did laughably trivial damage, but I wasn't after damage. When Mud Slap hit it lowered accuracy, and Tubareel snarled as the stinging particles bit into its eyes. YES!

"Okay now pyrite, use Metal Whip!" I shouted. I prayed.

Crunch hit. Pyrite fainted. FFFFUUUUU-

Never mind! I had one more chance! The Tubareel was on low yellow; if kitty could get its shit together I'd be testing out the deposit multiplier this afternoon.

"Go kitty!" I pointed forwards, and the floating kitty paddled out in front of me, yowling and hissing as the salt water bit into its flesh wounds. "Kitty, use leaf blade!" I pushed down any guilt I felt about making the badly injured kitty fight. Skin as thick as its skull, remember?

"Tubareel, Crunch! Straight ahead!" Hokage bellowed.

But... The stars had aligned for me, if you believe in that astrology bullshit. And if you don't, then the probability had worked in my favour. Tubareel, grit in its eyes and distracted by the dispersing blood from kitty's wounds, clamped its jaws down just to the left of the feline.

"NOOO!" Hokage let out a doomed yell as kitty ripped into the side of the snake with its tail. "Tubareel! I am sorry!" he shouted.

"Boss!" Juunin whined, rubbing sadly at his belly. "Why did you have to mention hamburgers?"

"I am no longer the boss!" Hokage wailed melodramatically. "I have been defeated! How can I go on calling myself the boss of the seas? I cannot even win against a troupe of zoo animals from the land."

He thrust his hands towards his face, still straddling the fainted Tubareel. "Ari, you are our new boss. You are the new ninja boss of the high seas."

I stared at Hokage. The ninja brothers stared at me.

"Now you've done it," they hissed at Ronin. "You have made dick jokes to the boss."

There was silence. Hokage's shoulders were shaking. Was he crying? Then his hands dropped away from his face and clutched at his belly. He was doubled right over he was laughing so hard.

"...GOT YOU! Just kidding!" Hokage cried, tears streaming down his face. "Your face! That was hilarious!"

He continued to hoot with laughter. Everyone stared at him in consternation.

"Of course I'm still going to pirate the high seas with my team," Hokage said eventually, the convulsions calming down. "What else am I going to do, go on the dole? No... Ari, you are now merely our honorary boss. Take my pokepod number. Anything you need, any time, just call me."

"Cool," I said. I angled my badges again. "Thanks."

"No worries!" Hokage said with a toothy grin. "Here, I will heal your pokemon for you as my first gift." He fished potions and revives from the gunny sack attached to his pokemon. "Now, come on brothers, we have tourists to rob!"

And with that, the ninja were gone in a flash, as quickly and suddenly as they had appeared. Solana and I climbed back onto the newly erect blades, as if in a daze.

"Woah, what just happened," Solana said, shaking her head. "That's gotta come in handy though, having allies out here."

"Can't hurt," I agreed.

And so we continued east along the Maskara Channel, and very soon we made landfall, the bustle and buskers' tunes of Venesi City reaching us through the evening air and a shady grove of trees and long grass.


	27. Stan-Amy-Venesi City

The rest of the walk to Venesi was easy going. Entrepreneurs and mediums lined the grove, preying on crowds of tourists taking day trips out of the city, offering discount Tarot readings or a 'divine horoscope' from a decoratively robed Trawpint. Dragon pokemon darted between the treetops every now and then. Their trainers lurked in the shadows beneath, calling commands to them as needed while scrolling Facebook on their phones.

I got my own phone back out, freshly charged in Nowtoch City. It soon became apparent I'd missed twenty major threads and a revolution on Reddit. It would take me hours to get back in the loop, and I wondered about the point of it all really.

I put my phone away.

A couple minutes later we emerged from the grove, and a short hike after that the grassy terrain gave way to gravel then fine sand, warm bay waters rushing gently up the beach with a hiss.

From the innermost point of the bay, bridging shore and open sea, rose an expansive network of cobbled streets which threaded between the townhouses, parks, and attractions of a timeless stone metropolis.

Solana's eyes were twinkling when I looked at her. It took me a second to realise that they were just reflecting the lights of the city.

"I love this place," she said happily, breathing in the fresh, salty air. The sounds of laughter and live bands carried across from the entertainment strip, and we could see the waterfront parade packed with tourists, milling around the restaurants, gift shops, and inns.

"You can go shopping if you want, or go see the Opera House," Solana said as we reached the fringes of the town. "I'm off that way to my friend's place." She pointed away from the bustle and the sea, towards where the residential sector stretched for miles inland.

I would've preferred the friend's house. Despite being a rich bourgie fuck I literally never engaged in the practise of trivial consumption, hence why I was turning into such a great target for robberies.

Solana saw it too, I think. "You can come," she said hesitantly. "You know, if you'd rather listen to nuclear physics discourse."

"Sure," I said. It wasn't even the shopping. I could've killed time at the gym. Really, I'd just had enough action for one day and didn't feel like getting dragged into more drama.

Solana laughed heartily. In hindsight, that was probably foreshadowing.

The walk through the streets was innocuous enough. We joked about the ninja and I described what I'd seen down in the Anthell and on route 11. It felt relaxed though, and not like we were trying to unravel a convoluted conspiracy which might possibly lead to the apocalypse.

Solana steered us down a winding no through road, and we came to a halt in front of a ratty old townhouse. The front door sported the rusty ends of what had once been a metal knocker. In its place, a small hammer hung on a string from the stumps. Solana giggled. "Engineers," she said.

Solana lifted the hammer and knocked on the door. It was answered pretty promptly; someone had been expecting her arrival.

I gasped when I saw who it was.

The door swung open. Solana's friend was Stan, the manager from Epsilon uranium mine. My eyes widened. Solana smiled and leaned up to kiss Stan on the lips. "Hi honey," he said. My eyelids were practically touching my brain at this point.

So the crush was mutual... Scandalous! "But what about Sheldon?!" I couldn't stop my capricious mouth from exclaiming. This was why I had no friends.

Solana looked taken aback, but she smiled. "Sheldon and I are in an... open relationship," she said with a smirk.

"And what about him?!" my mouth continued to yak. My finger pointed of its own accord towards Stan. I died inside.

Both Solana and Stan giggled this time. "Don't worry kid, it's good for my health," Stan said to me.

"Sally's very, uh...," Solana tried to explain. "She threatened to max out his credit cards if he ever broke up with her."

"How d'ya know I have a girlfriend anyway?" Stan asked with a jovial smile. "Wait... Don't I know you from somewhere?"

I coughed and lifted a hand to my chin. "No."

"Oh! Yes, I do! I'd recognise my old friend anywhere!" I shrank back as Stan advanced towards me with his arms wide open. But I needn't have feared. He wasn't aiming for me.

Stan passed by me and his arms closed around kitty. It purred contentedly as Stan scratched its grassy belly. "You have grown since last time, haven't you?"

Solana looked at me weirdly. I smiled back, sweating.

"Come on in!" Stan said. "Bring the cat as well, I have some leftover chops in the fridge. So Lana, how's things going? I've got something that might help Morgan's research actually." He winked at me. I prayed silently.

As Solana and Stan chattered about her research and the explosion at the power plant, I sat between them at the table, munching on a generously seasoned chicken kebab.

"So, what was that thing you had for Morgan? I can give –"

I coaxed myself into a fit of coughing. "Phew," I said. "Sorry, it's good but it's so spicy." The sweat beading on my forehead added excellent credibility.

"I'll grab you some water," Stan said hurriedly. "I'll get the stylus as well."

Stylus... Immediate crisis averted, my interest was piqued. But I quickly went back to agonising over how to coalesce these two people's ideas of my identity.

I decided to trust Solana. "He thinks I'm Morgan," I whispered. "I'll explain later." Solana's eyebrows shot up, but she nodded.

But Morgan was promptly forgotten when Stan returned with the goods. I gasped. In his hand were two styluses – one slightly smaller than the other. I'd seen them both before. The small one on the Staraptor flight, and the big one pointing between my eyes in the Anthell.

Stan had just produced the two most recent blue ranger styluses.

"How... What..." my wayward mouth was nattering again. "Those styluses! How did you get those?!"

Stan frowned. "Wait, you know what they are?"

I cursed silently, but he didn't seem fussed. He reached into his pocket for his flask and took a swig of Russian water.

"I was at the mine this morning, kissing creditor ass at my desk, then there was another explosion – I think there were people trying to fix that busted reactor or something."

"Bloody nuts," Solana said. "Like the plant's still useable."

"Yeah, total waste of money, just bulldoze the lot... Anyway, the medics were leaving when I got there. These," he indicated the styluses, "dropped from this guy's pocket and nobody saw, so I picked 'em up. He was passed out on a stretcher and everything. I figured I'd find him at the hospital later, he had pretty wild hair you know, until I turned them on and realised –"

"Wild hair?" I cut in. Stan stared at me. He'd been on a roll with his story. "What colour was his hair?"

"Um, it was like, bright red, with a yellow bit down the middle. Kinda hilarious actually. Some people never get over their emo phase."

I gasped. Cameron! Cameron had been at the mine this morning. It was true! Yet he was also carrying the styluses... My head was spinning. Was it possible this wasn't a one-or-the-other situation? Was it possible he had been in both places? What did that mean?!

"Ari, what's up?" Solana asked, concerned. She gasped. Her hand flew to her mouth. "Ari," she whispered. "I said Ari."

I closed my eyes. I managed to stop my mouth from fabricating another web of lies. "I'm actually called Ari," I said to Stan. "I'm not Morgan Pierre. I just wanted to look round the mine, cos I like mines."

"Wait... Really?" Stan said, squinting at me. "Yeah, I thought that was weird, you don't look like a 20-year-old man... but it's PC not to assume." He laughed and took another drink. "Don't tell Sal, she'll freak."

I let out a breath, relieved. Of course he wouldn't care. Stan's champion stance on OH&S should've clued me in.

Solana grinned. "Well Ari's really been my bodyguard rather than my colleague. But they're here for the discourse now."

"Hmm, the discourse? Not the disc... horse...?" Stan said, waggling his brows and pointing at a slot model Gararewl on his mantelpiece.

"Stop it," Solana said, snickering. The vodka was really oiling the dad jokes lobe of Stan's brain.

Solana lifted the styluses to show me before Stan could desecrate any more iconic memes. "So anyway, we figured out these work with radiation." She gestured to Stan, who chucked her his Swiss army knife.

Solana carefully pried the plastic casing off the smaller stylus. "So that's how..." she mumbled to herself, mashing the power button. "Ari, look at this. There's a radioactive source in the core." Solana pointed but all I could see was a dark grey tube.

"Watch." Solana pressed the button and the two halves of the grey tube slid apart, revealing a tiny pulsating blue-green stick underneath. I glanced at the napping kitty. A soft green glow was building up around its body.

Solana snapped the shield closed. "This lead blocks the signal when it's turned off."

"Ernest... sorry, Bamb'o, and his team have been looking into nuclear types. I dunno if you know, but pokemon round the power plants... they've been going all green and spazzy from the radiation, and they won't listen to any trainer."

I nodded. "I've seen them."

"Well, the stylus kinda forces that process to start, and it happens very fast cos it's a big radiation dose."

I thought about the Staraptor which had been converted into nuclear type on route 11. That made sense now.

"But what is this...?" Solana frowned and ran her fingers over the additional box on the end of the longer stylus. "It screws with Tracton, but how?" She started mumbling to herself again. "Maybe the signal oscillates so the response circuits are overwhelmed. Constantly trying to match a new set point..."

"Maybe you're overthinking," Stan said cheerfully, reclining in his chair. He reached past me to put a hand on Solana's arm. "Maybe it isn't even scientific, it's psychological."

"Everything is scientific," Solana snapped.

Stan put his hands up and grinned. "Plebs' logic maybe, but what if Tracton can resist the signal just fine, it just doesn't want to?"

Solana looked annoyed. The corner of Stan's mouth twitched up. He quickly leaned over towards me and whispered, "You look fresher..."

"Don't be ridiculous," Solana said. "Literally why would any living thing choose to give in to mind control?"

Stan grinned. "We're in the city of the opera... You do it every time you go to a movie, or a play, or a magic show... How much of that is reality, yet people pay to go? Maybe poor Tracton just wants a fucking break from being the only sane one."

"This is not an objective discussion," Solana said severely.

"I'm just trying to help," Stan said, getting up and squeezing onto Solana's chair for a cuddle. "You know how famous people get all their ideas from inane conversations or a dream or something."

Solana sighed. "Sorry, I'm just tired..."

We sat in silence for a while. I grinned awkwardly. "I should get going." I started to wake up kitty, which was sleeping soundly after gorging itself on those chops. This task was always a colossus. Eventually I gave up and just sucked it into the Master ball.

"You can stay the night if you want, we have a spare room," Stan offered charitably.

I wasn't in the mood for an intimate lesson on the town love scandal. I bid Stan and Solana goodbye, promising to come pick the latter up when I was ready to roll tomorrow.

As I dawdled back towards the city, Stan's suggestion bounced idly around in my mind. Was there anything Tracton liked or feared enough to make it let down its guard...?

It took me ten stuporous minutes to realise I could just let it out and ask it.

"Hey Tracton," I drawled, turning on the PST. "Nice work on Hokage today."

"Thanks," Tracton replied. "Would you like my soul scrambled, fried, or soft boiled?"

"Harsh," I said. "I compliment you guys all the time."

I racked my brains. I'd once told kitty it was 'pretty sick'. I rubbed my neck guiltily.

"Do you remember anything from the Anthell?" I asked.

"What Anthell?" Tracton replied. Great. I should've known. It wasn't like I hadn't experienced a stylus attack myself; it was like getting blackout drunk.

I tried another tactic. "What's your favourite thing in the whole world, Tracton?"

"I dunno..." It seemed to think for a while. "Why don't you try to answer that?"

The little bastard was right, I couldn't. Wow, I really led a empty, superficial life. I couldn't think of anything or anyone I'd sacrifice myself to protect.

"What about something you're scared of?" I tried yet again. "Any old legends about your species?"

"Ari, use your brain," Tracton said. I swore I could hear it rolling its eyes. "I was raised in captivity. How would I know the ways of my ancestors?"

I was getting little besides a good schooling. I turned off the PST.

The streets and sky were starting to lighten around me. I was nearing the glitzy city centre and its impressive dome of light pollution.

"ARI!" someone shrieked. The voice snapped me out of thought, and for once I actually welcomed the sight of Amy and her flailing limbs. She was dressed in a light T-shirt and shorts. I should really get rid of my fluffy hoodie; it probably wasn't a coincidence I was regressing harder the closer to summer we got.

"Hi Amy," I said. "What are you doing here?"

"We're having a sleepover with my cousins!" she said excitedly. "We're going to catch Masking in the Labyrinth tomorrow! Yay!"

I looked up at the brightly lit hotel she'd emerged from. Something didn't seem right... Staying with cousins, but booking a hotel room?

"Let's go inside," I said. "I wanna get a drink."

I was disappointed to see there was no public bar, just a reception counter and a pair of ageing lifts in the lobby.

"...third explosion at a TAPCO nuclear power plant in the past seven days." A grainy TV opposite the counter was tuned to the news channel. I stopped in my tracks.

"Come on!" Amy whined. "Henry and stuff's upstairs!"

"Wait," I snapped.

"TAPCO engineers and contractors are working to stabilise reactors at Epsilon and Zeta, but due to prevailing threats from an underground terrorist organisation known only as the 'Blue Rangers', residents of West Tandor are strongly advised to leave the region if they are ab–"

"BORING!" Amy shouted, turning away from the TV. I scowled. "Why d'ya wanna watch that anyway? Come upstairs and play! Or let's go shopping!"

I gave my eyes a monster roll and slouched after Amy towards the lift.

Her family was staying in a suite on the third floor.

"Amy! I told you not to run off! Oh, hi Ari," Amy's mother greeted me when she saw me trailing behind.

"Sup," I replied.

"You're visiting cousins too?" she asked tiredly, with a quick glance towards Amy and Henry.

"Yeah, something like that," I replied vaguely. I got it; she didn't want to tell her kids what was really happening in case they got frightened.

Amy's Chicoatl sat on one of the little chairs, cooing to itself. Amy got up now and then to play with it, but it seemed despondent. "Oh no, Chickie, what's wrong?" she would pout.

I pretended to watch TV with the parents, but it was some Neighbours-type BS and I could feel my brain cells dying.

When the episode finished, they started channel surfing and I caught snippets of shows while drifting off to sleep, despite myself. "Bones!" *crash* - flick - "Tandor Power Company, TAPC–" - flick - "...dump truck driving through a nitroglycerin..." - flick -

Yikes! My eyes flew open at an insistent thudding on my arm. "Ari," Amy said, giving me big puppy dog eyes. "Ari, can you talk to Chickie for me? I don't know why it's so sad."

I let out a long groan and turned on the PST. I wasn't about to snub the kid in front of her parents. I pointed the PST at Chicoatl.

"Hey," I said. "You all good?

"I need to go back to the forest," Chicoatl said sadly. "My friends need me. The humans hurt them... They can't take care of themselves now... I'm so worried."

A big neon sign was flashing at the back of my mind. I decided to probe further.

"What happened to them?" I asked.

"The humans caught them and took them away... And when they came back, they didn't have any eyes."

I gasped. Chicoatl eyes... Could they be the key? The Chicoatl and the mine, both in Baykal forest... it couldn't be a coincidence.

"That sucks dude," I said comfortingly to Chicoatl. "But you know, if you go back, you might get caught yourself. Here you can raise awareness and support the cause. That's very important too."

Chicoatl looked at me and sniffed. "Really?"

"Trust me, I almost became a communist once," I said reassuringly. "Mindset to live by. Besides, I think you've already given me an idea..."

I turned to Amy. "Can we go outside for a second?"

"Uh, yeah? Mum! Me and Ari are just gonna play outside!"

"Don't leave the building!" her mother yelled back, but Amy was already halfway down the corridor, whooping as she went. I wheezed slightly as I jogged after her, the Chicoatl tucked under my arm.

"Wait up!" I called. "I just wanna test something out." I passed Chicoatl to Amy, who started cooing to it. Its mood seemed to have improved. You can never go past Soviet war slogans to inspire the masses.

I let Tracton out of its ball. "Okay, point Chickie at Tracton," I said. Amy held Chicoatl out at arms length.

"Tracton, use Shift Gear!" I commanded.

No problem there. Tracton's motors roared into action and it powered itself up. Chicoatl's beady eyes watched on placidly. I cast a concerned glance at the doors lining the hallway but nobody had come out to murder me yet.

"Ugh," I groaned. My idea hadn't worked out.

Then I gasped. The move Shift Gear usually lasted about five seconds, but Tracton had been revving for well over ten and was showing no signs of stopping, even as its sides started to spark.

"Tracton! Stop!" I shouted.

"What's going on out here?!" an old woman emerged from her room to bellow. There it was.

"TRACTON!" I thundered.

Tracton, paying me no heed, zoomed forward towards the trembling Amy and the Chicoatl in her hands.

"Amy, get in that room!" I shouted, pointing at the old woman. "Close the door!"

Amy turned and fled with a scream and the appalled woman slammed her door shut. I grabbed Tracton's Master ball, sucking it in just in time as it barrelled towards the door, fulling intending to level it. Wow. What the hell was that?!

My heart rate slowly returned to normal.

"It's safe!" I called, almost staggering as I went to knock on the door. Big come down.

The old woman opened up tentatively and Amy peeked around her.

"Rascals," the woman snapped. "You should know better than to battle pokemon inside. Where are your parents?"

"Sorry," I apologised.

"Sorry? You should be sorry!" Her voice was growing higher and higher as she launched into a five-point essay about the shortcomings of the modern generation.

"Thanks for helping save Tandor," I muttered, turning my back and grabbing Amy's arm.

"Don't you sass me," the woman spluttered indignantly, but she was already retreating. I didn't care. My mind was ticking over furiously as I processed what had just happened.

"Why was Tracton so angry?" Amy whispered right into my ear, standing on her tiptoes. I jumped a mile in the air.

"Uh..." I said. "Uh, I don't know. But it's something to do with Chicoatl, that's why Chicoatl's friends are being taken, to add an inhibitor to the stylus..."

"What?!" Amy shrieked. "What are you talking about, Ari?!"

I knew I was chattering a million miles a minute. I was totally wired all of a sudden. I needed a drink to calm down.

"Don't worry about it," I jabbered to Amy, herding her and Chicoatl back into her parents' room. "Feed it a treat or something." My hands were flapping up and down. Wow, was I on drugs? "Gotta go! Later! Bye!" I flashed a big grin to the parents, who waved at me, bemused.

Buzzed, I mashed the lift call button and rode down to the lobby hopping from foot to foot. Zipping out of the door, I caught sight of a pub on the corner of the street. 'Tipsy Tavern', read the tacky neon sign above the door. Both Ts had gone dark.

I pushed open the door...

It would've taken a lot to stop me dead in my tracks in that state. But what I saw next managed it.

The noise of the tinkling bell made Bruno look up from where he was wiping down a newly vacated table, a stack of plates balanced in his free hand.


	28. Rosalind

Spoiler Warning: Tiny reference to end game story (you'd recognise it if you have finished the game, but I think it's relatively safe. The place where it's at is where there are italics just after Ari passes out)

...

"Ari!" Bruno said brightly after three seconds of silence. He saw that I recognised him. He had smartly decided not to feign ignorance.

He deftly steadied the plates in his hand and waved me over in one smooth movement.

"You been all right?" he asked me.

"Yep," I said dismissively, desperately trying to scrutinise him beneath my calm facade. This was so suss.

"Come sit. I'll get you a drink." Bruno patted one of the tables, draped with a garishly check-patterned cloth. I watched as he disappeared into the back, returned minus the dirty dishes, and paid for an orange juice at the bar. I closed my eyes.

"I know what you're thinking," I heard him say from opposite me. I opened my eyes in time to see him smiling apologetically, pushing my juice towards me.

"It's okay," I replied. "I don't want you to lose your job."

Bruno cocked his head to the side. "Huh?" he said, confused. "But yeah... my job..." He grinned. "Welcome to my second home." He threw open his arms, the tacky bow tie lopsided at his neck. "I'm a FIFO worker at Baykal, and it's good to stay busy when I'm here..."

Bruno sounded confident and relaxed but I wasn't buying a word of it. I was even sure in my paranoia for once. Even if the job story was marginally credible, Bruno's personality seemed to have done a complete 180.

"Cool," I replied with a lazy smile. I took a sip of my orange juice.

"So, what brings you to Venesi?" Bruno asked charismatically. Abysmal acting; ironic given the setting. "You here to challenge the gym?"

"Not today," I said, looking at my watch. It was almost 7pm.

"The Opera's open till late," Bruno said with a grin.

Opera House, huh? I probably could've guessed the gym would be there, but like I said, I had been regressing.

"Let's go see a show," Bruno suggested. "They're playing Amara's Song tonight."

"No thanks," I said. Well, one thing hadn't changed, he was still as clingy as ever. Please, you look desperate. "I'm gonna get a room and crash. Long day."

Bruno lifted his hands and smiled. "Sure thing. I won't keep you."

He stood quickly as I drained my orange juice, and took my glass away with a small and very unnecessary bow.

I left the Tipsy Tavern, but I didn't head for the pokemon centre. Instead, I turned left down another street branching from the intersection, towards the heart of downtown where the brilliantly lit Opera House rose from the far side of a large square.

The square's area was needed. Huge queues of tourists, trainers, and art fanatics snaked round the edges, being harassed by hoardes of merchants and activists alike. Gentleman Sr. Goldkorn would be right at home here.

Harried-looking security guys rushed round the square, handing out fines to anyone who got too close to the queues. I scoped out other trainers (easily distinguishable from the socialites as the latter gave a shit about their appearance) and awkwardly shuffled into the outskirts of their huddle.

Thankfully the trainer line was relatively short and I was through in under five minutes. One of the many stages in the vast building had been set aside to host the gym, and a scattered group of theatre nerds interspersed their half-assed battling with spontaneous skits.

"Hey," one of them said to me with a bright smile. "You want to battle with us? The leader's pretty devious, we can clue you in on their strategies."

"Sure," I said.

"All right!" the young actor said, hoisting his first pokeball with a grand flourish. "Get ready, Trawpint!"

"Go, Tracton," I mumbled, feeling like I was talking in the library now everyone had gathered to watch. Please, be normal, I prayed as Tracton emerged from its ball.

Tracton landed on the stage with a roar. So far so good...

"Get on a tractor for once in your life, you sickening theatre –"

I rummaged in my bag in horror and turned off the PST just in time. Some piece of junk must have tapped the power button while it was rolling around in there.

I smiled angelically. "You guys into memes round here?"

There was a terse silence and a giggle or two from the corner. The actor took the high road and continued his very impressive act of pretending to like me.

"All right Trawpint, use Psychic!"

"Tracton, use Dragon Claw," I countered. Tracton hit first of course, but Trawpint didn't take the one shot as expected. I frowned.

"Lesson one," said the actor with a sparkle in his eye. "Things are not always as they seem."

I watched on incredulously as the very solid purple Trawpint in front of me wibbled before my eyes, the space around it warping a little as it collapsed down into a small, innocuous, black and white bird.

What. The. I blinked again, but still all I saw was the bird. I half expected Tracton to disappear next and be replaced with all my life's disappointments.

"This is a Masking. Most of the trainers here use them," the actor explained. "The ability Illusion means you can never quite be sure if what you're seeing is really what you're seeing, or if it's actually a Masking."

Oh, great... Well, at least the timing could've been worse. I'd had a lot of practise working my paranoia recently.

I proceeded to rip through the rest of the actor's pokemon, and those of his friends. The psychic trainers were at a type disadvantage to me, but their special attacks did knock through our defensive walling. The playing field was further levelled by me having to listen to a string of dramatic soliloquies which my opponents paused the battle to deliver.

By the time I'd fought my way to the front of the theatre, my mind was so saturated with discourse on human nature I was fully ready to sprout fountain pens from my fingers and write litanies on a papyrus scroll while stroking my goatee.

"Good luck," one of the actresses said to me with a shy smile as I advanced to the uppermost tier of the stage, where the gym leader awaited me.

Dressed in black and white, face hidden by an ornately decorated mask, the gym leader Ignatius was an easy win. He seemed beyond the stage of practising zealously for his shows, so my mood was bolstered. Fresh from rounds of beating up Masking, I ripped into his with my kitty, and Trawpint could do little damage with its poison and psychic attacks.

"Congratulations," Ignatius said to me, holding out a hand. I reached forward with my head down, scoping out the prime real estate on offer for my next badge.

WHAM! My feet disappeared from underneath me.

Caught completely off guard, I let out a shriek. But the sound disappeared into the blanketing void of the cosmos as I found myself again careening through space. Hello again, my old friend. I was almost enjoying it by this point; a welcome break from the web of lies my life was turning into.

I drifted off into unconsciousness as the attack sucked all the energy out of my brain.

...

 _Are you getting desperate?_ I jerked awake, heart thudding.

But I wasn't awake, not yet. I was still trapped in a dark and murky dream state.

_So you finally know how it feels too..._

Where was the voice coming from? I tried to twist my head to look behind me, but fear coursed through me when I realised I couldn't. I tried to move my arms and legs, but there was no response.

"Ari!"

_Someone's here... That's a shame. I wanted more time with you._

The voice was coming from in my head. It was like I was thinking these words, only I wasn't.

I tried to move again, but I was frozen. The fear made me breathe faster... Only I wasn't breathing. I realised my heart wasn't beating either.

How was I feeling sick and afraid? There was no heartbeat to pump adrenaline through my body. Could it be possible... these weren't my feelings?

_How the tables have turned... Hahaha! You, living my life!_

"Ari! Wake up! Oh god Ari, please wake up." I felt a stinging on my face.

_We don't have long left... Look around you._

I'd seen nothing but a dark soupy fog so far, but my vision was lightening – there, through the lifting haze, I could see... I gasped. (Well, I gasped in my mind). I saw an ocean-side city, a big domed building at the end of a square...

I felt wind blowing past me. I was flying through the air, high above Venesi City. Below me... but I couldn't turn my gaze. My gaze seemed to move of its own accord. But whatever it was felt warm beneath my hands. It was a pokemon.

"Go get help! They're not breathing."

_So you see, wherever you go, I go. And wherever I go, they will go. So really, we're always together..._

Who?! I shouted in my mind. Who are you? Who are 'they'?

 _The grand finale..._ the voice was fading, and so was the image. _Soon... Your own strength and arrogance foretell it._

"Come on Ari. You can do it."

I felt hard wood boards below my hands. Sweat was beading on my forehead, but it was real. My heart was starting to thud, fast... I needed to breathe...

At the next slap on my face, I shot up with a huge gasp, taking in the air I needed.

"Thank god," the person in front of me said, clutching at their own chest and breathing hard. "I thought we'd lost you. You stopped breathing."

I looked around me incredulously. I half expected this world to collapse into yet another in an endless recursion of dream states. How had I gotten from the stage to...

It was a dark sort of room, completely trashed. I saw broken furniture, random items scattered every which way – strange things like wooden posts, saucepans, clothes, masks...

There was a big square of light in the roof, casting long shadows over everything. And the person leaning over me... I gasped again.

It was Maria's partner! But they looked different. Whereas in Nowtoch they'd had a crop of black hair and worn a simple black outfit, half their head was now covered in a luscious white wig, and they had on a brilliant white show jacket.

I could see she was a woman now.

"I'm sorry I hit you with the attack," she said, gazing at the opening in the ceiling. "Ignatius let you down at just the wrong time... They were here, Ari."

"Who?" I asked. But I knew who. The blue rangers. Urayne's companion had spoken to me just then, I was sure of it. They were still in my head. Maybe they'd always been there.

Urayne's companion. Urayne's trainer. That person. It felt too impersonal for some inane reason. They needed a name... I tried to think of all the famous nuclear scientists I knew. Roentgen? I didn't even know how to pronounce that. Meitner? Fermi? ...Curie...

That was perfect. I don't know how I knew, but that was the one. Maybe it was Curie themselves manipulating my thoughts. I almost laughed aloud at the absurdity. Just a joke, guys. I liked it cos it sounded good.

Maria's partner was still talking, about how the rangers appeared without warning, how she'd fought them off outnumbered, how she'd never noticed the old tunnel at the back of the room...

"I'm sorry." She shook her head of curls. I was mesmerised. She was hot. "I never even introduced myself. It was such a shock, you know... Well, my name's Rosalind, and I'm the Venesi gym leader."

WHAT?! The corners of her mouth turned up when she saw me looking between her and the square of light in the ceiling.

"Ignatius?" she said with a sparkle in her eye. "A fun prop. Rather suits the theme, don't you think? 'Some things are not as they seem'."

Wow, a faux gym leader. I'd really been taken for several rides today.

Rosalind smiled wryly. "My team's completely wiped though, so I'm afraid we'll have to leave the battle today. I'm gonna head out to the pokemon centre and go get a drink. You look like you could do with one too."

Was she asking me on a date?! I got excited momentarily. For literal fuck's sake, what was wrong with me. She'd simply taken pity on the poor waif who'd fallen unsuspecting through her ceiling and been blasted out stone cold by her pokemon's powerful attacks.

Besides, she was with Maria...

"Yeah," I said, keeping my cool smile and aloof facade intact. "I'll come along."

Rosalind showed me the hidden stairs at the back of the room, and we were soon back atop Ignatius's stage. "It's good fun," she said to me, laughing. "But sometimes it gets a little frustrating, taking my bows under the stage..."

"Did they win?" Ignatius asked, nodding to me.

Rosalind shook her head. "We're battling another day, there's been a bit of drama. Close up and have an early night, I'll clean up here later."

Ignatius nodded and started calling to the other actors and actresses milling in the theatre. There was no sign of the trainers I'd lined up with. Underlevelled, I guessed.

I followed Rosalind out into the cool night, a welcome relief from the sun. The city's lights shone brighter the darker it got.

"Thanks for, you know," I said awkwardly to break the silence as we walked along.

Rosalind laughed. "It's no problem. Most trainers around here aren't very strong, so the pokemon they got were easy to beat. Good thing they didn't capture yours!"

I blushed despite myself. "Thanks..." I said. Think of something to say, you moron! But my mind had suddenly gone blank.

"I'm just gonna pop in here," Rosalind said, waving towards the pokemon centre. People were starting to notice her and whisper. "Feel free to go ahead to the tavern. I don't want you to get crushed." Her mouth turned up again as the first fans started to encircle her.

I nipped out of there quickly (and somewhat reluctantly). Soon I could barely see Rosalind through the huge crowd when I looked over my shoulder. The mass of people inched slowly towards the pokemon centre.

I pushed open the door of the Tipsy Tavern. Thank god, Bruno's shift had finished. I wasn't in the mood for dealing with that.

I walked up to the bar. I ordered a vodka lemonade.

"ID please, kid!" the bartender barked with a smirk.

I produced one of my fake IDs.

The bartender laughed condescendingly. "You want me to believe that's real?"

"Honestly," I said with my compelling voice. "I get this so much, you can't imagine."

"Get lost, before I call security."

"What can I do to prove it to you?" I asked, feigning desperation and lifting up my hands in a gesture of helplessness.

The bartender smiled lazily. "Open you wallet and let me have a look. I bet I'll find two or three more in there."

I walked out of the Tipsy Tavern.

I almost crashed right into Rosalind, who had freed herself from the mob.

"Oh, what's wrong?" she said, cocking her head at me. I was sweating. She was so attractive. "Come on, I'll talk to him," she said with a wink.

"Hey, I thought I said –" the bartender yelled when he saw me.

"They're with me!" Rosalind bantered back. "Honestly Jack, can you really afford to be turning down business right now?"

"Yeah, yeah," Jack grumbled.

We sat down in one of the booths at the back and Rosalind brought two drinks over.

She picked up her glass and took a dainty sip. "Nah, that won't work fast enough," she said half to herself, and sculled the whole thing. Awesome...

I sipped on my own drink.

"So Kellyn would be livid, of course," Rosalind said, her mood improving. "He keeps sending you away, and they keep finding you."

"Time to hit the road again," I drawled nonchalantly.

"Not much point," Rosalind said with a shrug. Tell me to stay here with you! my brain suggested. I felt like pummelling my brain.

"I think they'll always be able to find you... Better to find a way past their styluses. They have little power on their own."

My mind was working sluggishly, but something finally clicked into place. That was it!

"Rosalind," I said hurriedly, trying not to sound too eager. "You have a Coatlith, don't you?"

Rosalind cracked a smile. "Dragon, second best to psychic – needed something with Fly."

"Cool!" I said. For crying out loud, calm down, you LOSER. "I actually just found out why Tracton responds to the stylus now... You know, because it didn't use to, Solana was gonna mass produce Tractonite as an inhibitor..." I quickly tried to fill in the holes. I realised my explanation probably sucked. I was getting very flustered.

"Wait..." Rosalind said, her mouth turning up into a smirk. "Solana? Like, Solana Solana?"

"Er..." I said.

She started laughing, the alcohol lighting up her eyes. "Everyone knows about Stan and Solana here. It's big goss right now. Anyway, you were saying?"

My life was a dream. This super attractive gym leader was asking for my scientific observations and listening attentively. We were squashed into a pub booth engaged in the thrill of underage drinking. She had complimented my OP pack of steel beasts. Maybe I was glad I'd started this journey after all...

"It's something to do with Chicoatl," I explained. "When I put my Tracton out in front of Chicoatl, it stopped listening to my commands."

Rosalind frowned. "Of course..."

I waited for an extension.

"That must be it!" Rosalind said eventually. She waved to Jack, who started preparing another drink.

"Okay, so this goes way back, back to when modern society first began infiltrating the Baykal. Must've been a hundred, a hundred fifty years ago. So humans took their machines and dynamite into the forest and began opening up towns, roads, mines..."

She broke to accept the drink from Jack and down half of it again.

"But Coatlith was the guardian of the forest, and it felt powerless to attack the machines destroying its home... Until humans started replacing their bulldozers with Tracton. Much more efficient, you see. And that's when the war started."

She finished the rest of her drink.

"The two dragon pokemon – one representing the forest, one on the side of development and urbanisation. They became bitter enemies, to the point that humans had to bring their bulldozers back to stop the bloodshed. That was at the turn of the 20th century. Most people have forgotten the whole thing by now."

"Then how'd the blue rangers find out?"

Rosalind shrugged and grinned. "Same way I did. There's libraries around the place, you know, full of dreary old history books. Vinoville has a few. They've probably had time to snoop around since the town was evacuated..."

She stopped to order yet more drinks for both of us. I was so ready to get smashed tonight.

"So anyway, it's said that whenever Tracton and Coatlith – or Chicoatl, for that matter – are in each other's presence, they revert back to the basal combat instincts inherited from their ancestors, and they won't listen to any trainer."

"Wow," I said. This conversation was really very interesting. Maybe I was just buzzed enough to get excited about any inane old subject.

"Hey," I suggested, another light bulb going off. Man, I was on a roll. "Do you think, if we could stop the hate, the Tractonite would work again?"

"Of course," Rosalind replied. "Hate and tradition are strong things, but it's always possible to change..." She smiled to herself. "I would know."

I waited for her to elaborate, but she didn't. Do you know what she was talking about?!

"Come on," Rosalind said brightly, her eyes shining. "Let's go try it out!" She grabbed onto my arm and pulled me up from the seat. "Bring your Tracton, I'll bring my Coatlith."

Jack almost protested when we left – we were really pushing him close to breakeven tonight. Rosalind dragged me into the central park, but we didn't make out or anything (sadly). Instead, she let her Coatlith out of its ball and we hopped onto its back, flying north west back towards the grove. I didn't even want to close my eyes.

"Best to get out of town!" Rosalind shouted over the roar of the wind. "Don't want people panicking or anything. Let's keep it under wraps for now."

The grove was empty at this time of night, but we didn't set down there. Instead, Coatlith coasted down towards a craggy outcrop of rock which ran along the northern border of the forest, lit up in the harsh moonlight.

"We're on top of the Labyrinth," Rosalind explained as Coatlith bent its head to let us off, before returning to levitating a few metres above us.

"There's boats going to Silverport now, so nobody comes through here anymore."

I reclined on a flat slab of rock and stared at the sky with its colossal number of distant stars, maybe orbited by worlds full of puny and inconsequential people just like myself.

"Er..." Rosalind said, pointing to Coatlith and grinning. Oh, right. I hauled myself to a sitting position and dragged Tracton's ball out of my bag.

"Ready?" I said.

"Actually..." Rosalind frowned and beckoned to Coatlith, leading it over a small rocky hill. "Okay, now," I heard her call from the other side.

I threw Tracton's ball. It came out with a roar.

"Easy, Coatlith," I heard Rosalind say. Tracton had also sensed something was wrong and was growling uneasily. But they hadn't caught sight of each other yet.

"Now," I said to Tracton, trying to drum up my best motivational words. "You're going to feel angry when you cross over that hill. But I want you to keep listening to me and do what I say, okay? Don't let it control you, cos you're better than that."

I started to lead Tracton forward slowly. "That's great," I said to it. "Just stay calm..."

We rounded the crest of the hill.

ROAR! SCREECH! Locking eyes, Tracton and Coatlith exploded into motion and zoomed forwards towards each other. Tracton's sides were sparking. Coatlith's tail was shaking so hard the flower just about came off the end.

"Tracton!" I shouted desperately. "Come back! Coatlith is your friend!"

The two pokemon collided in a cataclysm of electricity, vines, and rage. They snarled and ripped at each other mercilessly.

Rosalind raised her pokeball and wordlessly returned her Coatlith, and I did the same for Tracton.

"...My god," she said at long last. We were silent for a few seconds longer. "I didn't think it would be that bad..."

"There must be something we can do," I wailed.

We watched the moon and the swishing treetops of the grove. The corner of Rosalind's mouth turned up. "Actually... I've just had an idea."

She beckoned me over towards the edge of the Labyrinth and started to pick boughs and flowers from the tops of the trees. I started to do the same, even though I didn't have a scooby what outlandish plan they were going to be used in.

"Okay, now let your Tracton out," Rosalind said once we'd amassed a pretty large pile of plant matter. I did so obediently. Battered and bruised from the first fight, Tracton was still growling threateningly.

"Now, disguise it with these leaves," Rosalind said with a smile. Oh... I was starting to figure out her plan. I smirked back. Nice one.

As we were tucking the branches and flowers into Tracton's gears and body, Rosalind began to talk about herself.

"When I was a kid, the Venesi Opera never allowed women actors," she said. "How come things changed? Well..." She grinned. "I used their game against them. They sold illusion, and I beat them all."

I tucked flowers onto Tracton's tail, covering up the electrical beacon.

"I disguised myself as a man and auditioned, and I was so good nobody figured out the secret until it was too late... What I'd done made them think, re-evaluate everything they knew... I forced them to admit that women could also be talented actors."

Rosalind put the finishing touches on Tracton, pushing two flowers into its head plate to shield its eyes.

"And so ended an age of division and intolerance... We learned it never has to be that way. We always have the choice to change."

Rosalind pulled out Coatlith's pokeball again. "Ready?" she asked.

"Ready," I replied.

Coatlith emerged screeching from its ball, and immediately exploding into age-old anger, Tracton rushed forward and sank its fangs into Coatlith's body. Coatlith recoiled in pain, but we could both tell it was confused. It couldn't see Tracton's eyes, so it never tried to return the attack.

This confused Tracton, bringing it out of its rage long enough that reason took over again. It stopped in its tracks and lifted its head, looking up at the Coatlith in front of it. This enemy... was it surrendering?

One of the flowers dropped out of Tracton's head plate. I gulped. But the pokemon were still staring at each other. Slowly, very slowly, Tracton started to back away. Coatlith recoiled from the ground, back to its domain in the sky.

I quickly turned on the PST. "Tracton, what's up?" I asked it.

"This is stupid," Tracton said. "I don't know her, she doesn't know me. What were we even fighting for?"

I looked at Rosalind and she grinned widely back at me. It worked!

"That's right, Tracton!" I said. "That's the spirit! Let's try it again."

Rosalind led Coatlith away and brought it back round the hill a few more times, and although they bristled on first sighting once or twice, they gradually started to relax. I carefully peeled the disguise off Tracton's body, though most of it had fallen off already.

Completely exposed, we were ready to go into the final leg of training...

Exposed lol. I made a dirty joke in my mind. Stop it. Focus.

"Come on," Rosalind said, bringing the tired Coatlith over the hill one more time... There was no response from either of them. Amazing! I jumped up in the air and let out a whoop.

I hoisted the PST and pointed it towards Tracton. "You again," it was saying to Coatlith. "Seriously, what are these dweebs up to? Is this some bizarre courting ritual?"

"And we thought animals were extreme," Coatlith giggled back.

A tear of joy rose to my eye. I'd had too much to drink.

"I think that's a wrap!" Rosalind called, making her way over and enveloping me in a jubilant bear hug. What a dream.

"Come on, let's go home," she said, leaping back onto Coatlith's squishy body. The PST picked up its cursing. I packed Tracton away and climbed on board myself.

And on the whole flight back to Venesi City, my eyes stayed open. I wasn't afraid anymore... Tomorrow I'd challenge Rosalind, I'd tell Solana what we found. It was all going to work out! No matter what happened in my own life, with Kellyn, with Curie, or my pokemon... I would never forget the lesson I learned then, the fact that we always have a choice, and it's never impossible for someone to change.


	29. The Hangover IV

This chapter is another of the more 'silly' ones, for the laughs. But it gets into more serious stuff in the second half.

...

I woke up the next morning with the mother of all hangovers. Like, this thing was worthy of one of Zeus's galactic benders, the ones that gave rise to the rest of the Greek mythology cast.

I ran a hand over my eyes, my head quaking from the vibrations in my larynx as I groaned aloud.

I let my hand flop back down onto the bed.

It came to a rest on a lumpy, warm mass. Oh no. I left my hand where it was, frozen. The mass moved up and down. Breathing. No, no, no, no. I wasn't going to be responsible for sending the hottest gym leader in all of Tandor to jail, especially when I didn't even remember anything...

Okay, so we'd gone back to the Tavern on return, and Rosalind had gotten us into all the hottest clubs in town, at least that's what my arm seemed to tell me. I prayed that she'd just decided to draw on me for shits and giggles when I was passed out. I never drank with other people. Who knew what sitcom-style behaviour I was capable of justifying to myself.

I gulped (just dry air unfortunately, which made my throat burn) and lifted my head to look around the room with a colossus of effort. There, on the bedside table (once my vision had stopped spinning). A notepad with the generic pokemon centre logo emblazoned on the corner of each page.

Classy.

Well, there was no use putting it off forever. I took a deep breath. I grasped the covers in my hands. I lifted.

YOOOOWL! Kitty sprang up as the covers caught on its sharp metal tail, followed by a loud ripping sound.

I sighed. Really should've splashed out on that travel insurance. Awoken from its luxurious nap, the irate kitty stomped around on the bed, its claws shredding the mattress as it went.

I felt like a huge dweeb for even thinking Rosalind would stay the night with me... What was my problem? I mean, besides my trust and abandonment issues. Many she was too much of a hopeless romantic. It's different when you just have the hots for someone.

I sighed and pushed the covers off me. I checked the bedside clock.

YIIIIIKES! It was 12.30 in the afternoon! I lunged for my phone and mashed the power button, sweating. Seventeen missed calls from Solana. Please don't have sent out a search party, I prayed.

I called Solana.

"Good morning, Ari," she answered salaciously. I groaned.

"Where are you guys?" I asked.

"We're down at the gym. There's a crowd waiting to watch your battle!"

Yeah right, I thought with a monster eye roll. Opera queen gym leader and half of the hottest clandestine couple in town – like the place wouldn't be swarming with the paps.

I grabbed my jacket and bag, giving them a quick once-over. My badges were all intact, though the Belbeach one was sporting a dollop of whipped cream for some reason. Tracton, check. Shalegas, check. Blades, check. Horse, check.

A yowl reverberated round the bathroom as the shower curtains came down. Menace, check.

I opened the door, ready to roll on The Hangover, part 4.

The very next moment I wished I hadn't thought it. This was beyond a joke. Kitty came tearing out of the bathroom, wrapped in the shower curtain, trailed by a giant snapping pink rabbit with fairy wings on its back.

Please, I begged, I would have preferred a tiger. I pointed my pokepod at the creature – 'Winotinger, Fighting-Fairy,' my trusty PA dictated.

"Out!" I boomed to kitty, and it snaked out just in time as I slammed the door shut on the beast. I leaned back against the door, breathing heavily, as footsteps and crashes echoed inside.

I didn't check out of my room. I had until 2.30 – I figured I'd go beat Rosalind and hopefully manage to summon some backup while doing so. I guiltily placed ten crisp hundred dollar notes in the tips jar on the counter. The nurse stared at me in consternation.

I pulled my long sleeves down over my wrists as I walked along underneath the pulsating midday sun. Holidaymakers and retirees ambled the streets alongside me, constantly dodged and cursed at by harried-looking office workers trying to utilise their lunch breaks.

My pokepod was ringing. I fumbled for it in my bag, spilling max repels and full restores all over the pavement. Any minute now I was going to be robbed again.

I checked the caller ID – Professor Bamb'o. Long time no speak.

I clicked 'Accept'.

"Hi Theo," Bamb'o said cheerily. "Where you at? Seen Ari around? They're not answering."

I stared at the pokepod in horror. Oh no. How had I missed those little letters carved into its plastic casing – THEO CAINE. What the fuck had happened last night?!

"It's me," I replied quickly.

"Oh great, you're together then. Did you lose your pod? Though Solana did say I had your number down wrong..."

"Nah, everything's good," I said, sweating. A group of youths was eyeing me from across the street, whispering. I hastily tried to pack up my walking mart with my free hand.

"Can I talk to Theo for a sec? It's about his dex." The youths were crossing over.

"He's gone to the toilet," I said desperately.

"Hey, you!" one of the boys barked.

"Gotta go, I'll call you back!" I yelled into the pokepod and hung up before Bamb'o could catch any location-revealing background noises. I mashed the yellow button, disabling the GPS.

"...Get 'em!" the gang leader roared and the three guys broke formation, sprinting towards me. What the HELL?! I yanked my bag up onto my shoulder and broke into a run. I was heading north west, away from the gym, but there was no fucking way I was turning around. Pensioners shrieked as we threaded between them.

A pier was coming up straight ahead. I looked around me. Oh no. Nothing but warehouses and restaurants now, no side streets. I'd just run straight into a dead end. Wheezing from exertion, I clattered onto the wooden jetty...

"Hand it over!" one of the group shouted from less than ten metres behind me. I saw him lift a gun from his pocket...

I ripped blades' pokeball from the side of my bag and bombed off the side of the jetty.

Phew, big splash! I let blades out as I bobbed to the surface, and climbed onto the snapping Daikatuna's back. The three lads were staring at me, leaning over the railings and gasping.

"Oh my god, are you okay?!" one of them shouted. "Don't go all suicidal on us now, we were just being dramatic!"

I stared at the boys. They were all shuffling on their feet. The one with the gun lifted his gun – it was actually an inhaler, and he took a few puffs – as the leader climbed over the railings and held his hand out to me.

"What's going on?" I ventured an ask.

"We just wanted the boat keys back," the asthmatic said sulkily. "Me dad's gonna be mad if I lost them."

"The... boat keys?" I repeated.

He nodded earnestly. "We've got your hundred dollar deposit, it's all safe."

I grabbed onto blades, steadying myself. WHAT?!

"Here. I have that picture that girl wanted me to take as well." The leader relayed the soggy piece of paper to me. I unfolded it gingerly. Oh no, what was this...

There on the paper was a garish, shiny red eyes kind of affair, a shocking panorama of Rosalind, Theo and I leaning over the side of a speedboat, mouths open and hair flying. The tip of the jetty was just visible in the bottom of the photo.

Someone else was driving the boat, but I couldn't make out their face.

"So yeah, we just need the keys back," the asthmatic finished. "I mean, we found the boat by its navigator, it's over by the grove, but we can't drive it back without the keys."

He took another puff of his inhaler. I looked at blades. It seemed to roll its eyes.

We inched closer to the jetty and the three kids piled on, hanging off blades' guns and reclining on its back as it tilted over onto its belly to catch the surf. We made a wide arc out into the bay, round the southern peninsula of the city which hosted the gym. I quickly checked my watch. Only 15 minutes had passed since the start of this farcical expedition from the safety of my bed.

Just as the kids had said, the boat was moored serenely on the cliff side of the grove. Chatter from the merchants wafted down to us from above. I clambered off of blades and onto the boat, which rocked from side to side as I landed.

I shrieked and practically leapt ten feet up onto the top of the cliff.

There was a corpse lying at my feet, face down. But wait, he was alive... Startled by my pathetic screeching, Bruno had woken up and was now rotating his head groggily, squinting as he looked up towards me.

"Ari?"

"Sup," I replied.

We stayed there, suspended in awkward silence, a few seconds longer. "Have the keys?" I asked eventually.

"The keys? To the boat? You guys ran off with them... Said you wanted to hang them up with the hammer or something. Really weird shit, Ari. I also don't appreciate you drugging me when you got back."

"Huh?" was all I could manage. Drugs? No way. We'd just had a bit to drink. If Bruno had been our deso for the boat, he should've known better than to join in.

I sighed. I took all of us back to the Venesi City mainland and fumbled my way through dead ends and back gardens to Stan's house. I unhooked the boat key from the hammer's string, and dispatched it with the youths who had chased me. We parted on good terms.

But I'd noticed something when I was on the boat, ducking down beneath the control panel to help Bruno up. I'd seen it when I woke up too, though I'd been too hungover to care.

I checked it again discreetly once Bruno had left me alone, grumbling about something or other. I ducked beneath one of the hundreds of Venesi bridges and balanced on the narrow ledge of the supporting columns. There it was. A very faint green glow on my skin, visible in the darkness. I let out kitty and it slipped, landing in the water, but it was visible on kitty's body too – a faint green glow.

Maybe we'd gotten ourselves mixed up in more than a party and a boat ride.

But for some reason, none of us seemed hurt. I had even been tucked in comfortably in my bed, and so had kitty. Theo, I still didn't know where he was, but I figured he'd been taken care of as well. It hadn't been Bruno, who'd passed out on the boat. It couldn't have been Rosalind, who was just as smashed as I was.

Theo? I doubted it. And none of these options would have explained the glowing...

I shook my head, sucked kitty back up, and emerged from under the bridge, making troll gestures to some passing kids.

I'd figure it out later. I had a gym to beat first.

I turned south and picked my way slowly through the streets. It was a sunny day, typical of the season, and people around me were laughing and chattering in groups or pairs. I was on edge though. I had the feeling I was being watched, maybe followed, but each time I looked behind me I saw only gaggles of tourists or an uninterested businessman jaywalking to get to his meeting on time.

I told myself, it was just the nerves of having gotten too drunk and not remembering what happened last night. That was it. There was nobody there.

I passed the turn off to the pokemon centre. One more hour until the check out deadline. I kept going.

I reached the gym without being ambushed, which was a slight comfort.

"Ari!" a voice called breathlessly from behind me. I swivelled around. Solana and Rosalind were jogging across the square from the opposite corner, puffed from running.

"Phew, so you just got back too. We were worried we'd kept you waiting," Solana said.

"I realised my Winotinger was missing," Rosalind explained. "I'd never do a gym battle without it. The chip said it was at the pokemon centre, so we just popped out to pick it up..."

She paused, hands on her knees, getting her breath back.

"Turns out he'd completely trashed one of the rooms, so I paid for all the repairs. Old Wino can get a bit... excited sometimes."

"Oh no," I said, feigning sympathy. My kind smile was strained. I was sweating.

"Anyway!" Solana said brightly. She was the only one here who wasn't in serious need of a Panadol. "I hope you enjoyed my pancakes this morning!"

Rosalind and I turned slowly to look at her.

Solana lifted up her hands, grinning. "What? You guys were banging on our door at, like, five thirty? You had an accessory for the knocker or something, but that kid with the funny hair kept whining that he was hungry, so I made you all pancakes!"

I thought of the dollop of cream on my badge.

"I am so sorry," Rosalind groaned.

Solana waved cheerfully. "No worries. Stan and I were awake anyway." She winked. I closed my eyes to erase the image.

I stuffed my hands deeper into my pockets as Solana chattered on. Wait... there was something in there! I almost pulled it out, but stopped myself just in time. I went cold when I realised what it was.

Both the blue ranger styluses were in my pocket. I must have nicked them when we were at Stan's house...

That probably explained Bruno thinking I'd 'drugged' him when we got back to the boat. We'd probably turned the stylus on for laughs and knocked him out.

I quickly ran over what I'd learned. So, Rosalind and I had gone out clubbing, then somehow ran into both Theo and Bruno and hired a boat together. Then the three of us (minus Bruno) had stolen the keys and ran off to Solana's, where I'd fattened myself up on pancakes and stolen the blue ranger styluses. Somewhere along the way, Theo and I had switched pokepods, and Rosalind's Winotinger had ended up in my possession. Okay, good progress.

I'd mostly pieced together the story, but I still got the feeling I was being watched. I glanced uneasily around the cavernous entrance hall of the opera house. Two clerks at the counter, four ticket booths... a caretaker or two at the edges. Shows didn't start until early evening, so it was rather quiet. I guessed the paps had left when Rosalind went to fetch Winotinger.

I shook my head to clear the feeling. Solana was still chattering. "I was gonna call you back and offer you the spare room again, but a woman was waiting outside for you and gave you her jacket to keep you warm. I figured she was your mother, so I let you go."

HUH?!

WHAT?!

"I... I don't..." I choked on the words. What in the name of all that was holy... "I don't have a mother," I finally managed to get out.

Solana frowned. "Oh, I'm sorry... She doesn't seem to have hurt you though. Maybe she was the one who got you all to the pokemon centre."

Some pieces were starting to fall into place in my mind. The green tinge on my own body and kitty's. The stylus hadn't been on for long, or Bruno wouldn't be awake yet, so the radiation must have come from elsewhere...

"Hey Solana," I cut in. She stopped talking, surprised. "Was there anything funny about that woman? Who gave me the jacket?"

Solana frowned. "Not really..." she said. Her lying was abysmal. I gave her a lazy smile and stared into her eyes until she relented.

"Fine. She was kind of glowing in the dark. But I thought it was just a trick of the light, cos the sun wasn't fully up yet."

My head was reeling. A blue ranger had come to take care of me and Theo? And Rosalind? Unless this was some sick cosmic joke, Curie would never send one of their minions to do such a thing...

Unless Curie had been incapacitated. But what could possibly have hit Curie hard enough that they lost control of the blue rangers last night?

And why would the woman come to find me all of her own accord?! This didn't make any sense. I was starting to feel ill.

Hands shaking, I quickly brought out Theo's pokepod and found myself in the contacts list. I hit dial. I needed to talk to someone from my old, normal life to ground myself.

"Ari?" Theo asked groggily when he picked up. "Is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me. How ya doin', buddy?"

"Uhh..." I thought I heard the rustling of bed sheets. "I'm so tired. Why'd ya have to wake me up like that?"

"Are you at the pokemon centre?" I asked.

"Um... yeah, I'm still here. That ranger brought us in last night, don't you remember? You were so drunk, Ari. I'm going to tell Auntie."

"Watch yourself," I threatened. But I knew it was just banter. "Go back to sleep, I'll go get you at half past for check out."

Theo yawned. "Okay. Bye Ari."

Having calmed down, I turned back to Rosalind. She was still attractive. It hadn't just been the alcohol.

"Ready to battle?" she asked me.

"Bring it on," I replied.

Solana followed us into the empty gym theatre, and Rosalind turned on the lights. I could now see the trap door in the stage which I had fallen through yesterday. It was open for airing.

"En garde," Rosalind said with a wink.

Having ripped through the other trainers yesterday, I was feeling smugly confident. This was a mistake. Rosalind was a cut above the others, I soon discovered.

"Kitty, use Leaf Blade!" I shouted.

Leaf Blade landed hard on Winotinger, leaving it on red health.

Oh no, no, no. I closed my eyes in horror as the Winotinger started to collapse down into the now-familiar form of Masking.

"Masking!" Rosalind called. She was enjoying herself immensely. "Use pain split!"

My poor kitty's attack was now turned against it, more than halving its HP while Masking was healed.

I'd have to play a bit smarter here. "Kitty, Swords Dance!" I shouted, keen to try out its latest new move.

I watched kitty attempt an ungainly dance on its four left feet. Even Solana was struggling to reign in her laughter. But it worked well enough to sharpen the blades on kitty's tail and claws.

"Okay, now Leaf Blade!" I shouted.

I smirked back at Rosalind. One shot.

I took kitty out, saving it for the stronger pokemon I knew were coming. I used a combination of Tracton, blades and Shalegas (which came out as an evolved S51-A?! Maybe I had done some training last night as well...) to hit the real Winotinger, a Miasmedic, and a Duplicat.

Duplicat was probably the biggest pain in the arse; I had to waste a turn switching out Shalegas because there was no way I was going to take on a clone of my pokemon with only a steel-type Hidden Power and Psybeam. Tracton was a much better bet, with the neutral-hitting Dragon Claw.

"You're not bad!" Rosalind said to me, grinning, having taken out two of my pokemon, leaving Tracton and Kitty (and pyrite, but I didn't use it to battle much these days, except as a sacrificial lamb to let me use healing items).

"But can you handle this old friend?"

Laughing, Rosalind sent out her final pokemon, a huge... Woah, what was that? It made a hollow cooing noise. I understood immediately. This was the pokemon which she'd used to attack the ranger in Nowtoch, the Staraptor at Vinoville, and finally the blue rangers underneath the stage.

It looked somewhat like a bird, with many brilliantly coloured tails, but none of its edges were properly defined, and some colour or shape was constantly shifting in a translucent haze of illusion. If you've ever seen Doctor Who, it looked like the blurry monster from that pocket universe with all the fog. Basically, it was like a giant, unearthly glitch art of a bird, with a black and white head and big hollow eyes.

Creepy.

"This is Dramsama," Rosalind said, lovingly putting her hand on its... body?

"She's been my loyal friend since she was just a little Masking. And she's going to hit you hard!"

I had chosen kitty to lead. Dramsama outsped the cat, coming down fast with Shadow Ball. I gasped. My big wall of a kitty... It staggered and hissed, knocked flying by the attack. That was almost a one-shot!

Leaf Blade hit next, and was by some miracle a critical hit. I felt like grasping onto kitty to comfort it as it was knocked out straight away in the next round. That thing's special attack was on another level...

Only one pokemon left. "Go, Tracton!" I shouted.

I knew Tracton's speed was sufficient to go first, but Dramsama had some cruel defense and HP as well as its special attack. I took a gamble.

"Tracton, use Dragon Claw!" I ordered.

"Are you watching closely?" Dramsama spoke to me. I gasped. As Dragon Claw landed, taking it out (YES!), the fuzzy, distended lines of the pokemon started to collapse in on themselves... Until they coalesced into a single point, which shone brightly some way above the ground.

"A singularity," Rosalind said, a satisfied smirk on her face. "That's how Dramsama goes when she faints. I do it so people remember me."

I stared at the flickering speck, mesmerised. Like I could ever forget you, I thought.

"Well done," Rosalind said, sucking the pinprick of light back into her pokeball. "That was a hard fight, and you deserved the win. Here you go, for your collection..."

Rosalind handed me my sixth badge, and I whistled a fanfare to myself, puffing out my chest and slapping the badge into place. I didn't put it in line, instead pinning it near the top of my hoodie, letting it lord over the others. I think Rosalind noticed.

"You'll go far, Ari. You're smart, and you're determined... And you're kind deep inside, though you don't always want to admit it. Go far, and remember me." She smiled.

I waved a sad goodbye to Rosalind as I joined up with a congratulatory Solana at the foot of the stage, and we headed off to pick up Theo. I sighed heavily. I really wished I could stay here forever. But something was compelling me to complete my journey, make it to the Regional Championship...

That's right, there was something I had to tell Solana too. "Solana," I said. "Me and Rosalind figured out what was wrong with Tracton yesterday."

"And?" she said eagerly.

"Stan was right. It was an old feud between Tracton and Coatlith... But here's the thing, you can train it away from younger pokemon. We did it last night."

Solana was silent for once, thinking.

"So..." I stumbled on. "What I was thinking is, you and Morgan and whoever, you can team up with Rosalind – she has a good Coatlith you can use – and farm Tracton which will still be immune to the stylus, just by training them. She'll tell you how to do it."

Solana scrunched up her nose. "That'll definitely be Sheldon's job," she said with a laugh.

She turned to look at me, and smiled genuinely. "Thank you Ari. For that. For everything. You've really been an invaluable help to me, and I'm fortunate to have met you..."

I blushed. I never knew how to take compliments properly. "Uh... Cool," I replied. "Just don't tell me where you're setting it up, okay?" I winked. Ah yes, good old Curie with their mind-reading tricks.

We reached the pokemon centre. "I guess I'll leave you here then," Solana said. "I'll do what you said, I'll head back to talk with Rosalind." She sighed and looked down at her feet. "Good luck on your journey, Ari."

I waved goodbye to Solana as well. Everyone was coming and going from my life so fast now. Although he was an annoying little dweeb, I really hoped I wouldn't lose Theo too.

"ARI!" Theo was waiting in the lobby and glomped me. I rolled my eyes. "Come on, ya loser. Give me my pokepod back. Yours has cat spit all over it."

We switched back our pods. I considered Theo fondly. He was growing, he almost came up to my chin now.

I suddenly felt a twang of pity for him when I thought about Cameron, lying in a coma at Belbeach hospital...

We headed north to the grove together, surfing side by side, me on blades and Theo on Ellie. He looked strangely deflated.

"What's up?" I asked.

Theo sighed. "It's nothing... I guess all the stuff in the city made me forget for a while... I almost forgot about Dad, we were having so much fun last night. I feel terrible." His shoulders slumped.

"Oh no..." I said, trying to sound sympathetic but just sounding like a doomsayer. "You have to take care of yourself too, it doesn't do any good to worry all the time. Besides, I'm sure he's absolutely fine!" I gulped and hoped he couldn't tell I was lying.

We made land just outside the grove and packed away our pokemon. As we trudged up the beach and into the shelter of the trees, Theo's lip started to quiver.

"I dunno, Ari. I feel like he would've called me if he was okay. I bet he's in a coma, or even worse..."

"Don't say that, you ass," I snapped. I felt worse and worse. "That isn't true!"

"But what if it is?" Theo said.

We were silent for a few seconds.

"Kids! Kids, wait up!" a boisterous voice shouted for us from the shore we'd just landed on. Theo gasped. I swivelled around and my hands flew up to my face so fast they probably left slap marks.

"I thought I'd never catch up with you!"

I stared at Cameron. Cameron stared back at me.


	30. Labyrinth-Silverport

Spoiler Warning: no specific spoilers, but now Ari's starting to delve into TAPCO etc., there's just a general air of 'spoiler territory' for the endgame. I'm not sure how obvious it is (I finished the game a while ago so I'm not in a good position to judge the spoiler effect of small details), but there are some references to the story.

...

"C-Cameron..." I stuttered.

"DAD!" Theo shrieked, running forward into his father's arms. I stayed rooted to my spot in shock.

"Am I glad you're both okay," Cameron said cheerfully. My eyes narrowed in suspicion. Something was wrong here.

"Things haven't been straightforward at Epsilon Island, I'm here to visit TAPCO headquarters, up in Silverport," he explained hurriedly as he caught sight of my vacillating expression.

I didn't want to start a fight in front of Theo. If I stayed quiet, at least one of us could continue existing in a bubble of delusional happiness.

"That's so cool, dad," Theo chattered on, a huge smile on his face. "Can I go with you? Did you fix the power plant?"

Cameron laughed. "Sure, you can come with me. Wanna go through the Labyrinth? That'll be fun."

"SICK!" Theo yelled.

"Go on then, go ahead and make sure it's safe. I'll just be one second."

Theo, ego ballooning at being assigned the role of prospector, let out a boisterous whoop and charged off making war noises. Apparently it didn't even occur to him that he'd be missing out on some juicy goss back here.

Cameron really knew how to pander to his child. I sighed.

As soon as Theo had left, both of us let down our facades, and Cameron's eyes bored intensely into my own narrowed ones.

"Ari, I know you're confused right now," he began.

"How'd you guess?" I snapped. I decided to grill him before he could jump in and shove some baloney pie down my throat. "You're supposed to be in a coma in Belbeach City."

Cameron smiled tersely. "Where'd you hear that, Ari? I'd taken an overdose of radiation, that was all, I was a bit sick. I was in observation a couple days, and they discharged me this morning."

My immediate reaction was no surprise that Kellyn had lied to me. But when logic took over, I remembered Stan had backed up the story. Kellyn was telling the truth; Cameron had been unconscious when he was found at the power plant.

Cameron looked at me with the eyes of a man staring at his firing squad. That's right. There was one more thing I had to get straight.

"Forget Epsilon," I barked. "Baykal copper mine. Explain."

Even Cameron seemed taken aback at the sudden briskness in my voice. We were both startled by a crunching from the entrance of the Labyrinth – Theo pounding back down the tunnels and out into daylight. "It's a maze, dad!" he shouted. "We'll need a rope or something."

"I'm coming!" Cameron yelled in response. He turned back to me. "They took me hostage," he said. "There's a tunnel between Epsilon Island and the Baykal. Maybe that's why I was so sick when they released me; there was a lot of radiation in the lab."

My mouth fell open in shock. Not because of the story, which we both knew was pure bullshit, but because of the sheer arrogance with which Cameron had blatantly lied to me. This was even worse than Kellyn! At least Kellyn played me in a straightforward way. He was just a shitty parent, not a criminal

"I gotta go," Cameron said to me. "Don't worry about me... You've got six badges now? Your next one's up north, in Snowbank Town."

He looked like he was about to say something else, but changed his mind. He left it at, "Bye." before turning and pacing strongly towards Theo, who was on the verge of exploding with impatience. Very fit for an engineer, I thought snarkily.

Soon Theo and Cameron had disappeared from sight into the twists and turns of the Labyrinth. I followed at a distance, listening to their muffled conversation as it bounced off the walls and made its distorted way back to me.

I had my kitty out for company. Water dripped from the cave ceiling, and kitty was taking the opportunity to grow out its fur, grooming itself conceitedly from time to time. Theo bypassed the numerous hikers and city kids training in the tunnels, opting instead for quality time with Daddy.

I thrashed them all as I went, falling further and further behind. If Theo wanted to sacrifice his career for a conversation, that was fine by me.

I almost regretted my decision later, when the fairly angular tunnels of the early Labyrinth opened out into a boulder-lined spectre of convolution, interspersed with large pools of trapped groundwater, and I was completely out of earshot of the others.

It was obvious the place had once been a thoroughfare, with the remains of metal handrails and washed-out signs stacked in junk heaps between the rocks and ponds. They were no help now.

I turned on my phone light, as if the extra illumination would magically transform me into a competent navigator who had never been driven by a puzzle to incite acts of violence against a maze wall.

I took a step forward into the light and promptly tripped over a wild pokemon, making it grunt in protest and spray poison at me. Kitty lazily reached out its tail and took the blast of venom, which slid harmlessly down the steel blade.

"I got your back, homie," the PST translated.

I sighed. Better try a new tactic. There was too many rocks to climb over anyway. I got blades out and we hopped into the interlinking pools, surfing lazily around until I finally realised we'd been going in a massive circle and I was no closer to a place where I could purchase something to eat for dinner.

Why had I followed Theo into this dystopian shitscape?! I checked my pokepod and my phone. Too deep for signal. For fuck's sake. I couldn't even find the tunnel with the trainers anymore.

A memory popped into my head. 'If you can't beat them, join them then beat them from the inside'. Where had I heard that? Didn't matter. I was getting an idea.

I packed blades away and pushed on, deep into the maze. As I went, I picked up steel poles from the junk heaps, long straight affairs which had once been the tops of the handrails.

We came to our first dead end in under two minutes. I whacked the pole against the rock face, and heard the clang reverberating around some space behind the wall. This one would take me further through the maze.

How? I hear you ask with a condescending whine. It's a solid rock wall, Ari.

Noobs, didn't I ever tell you that I wanted to be a miner?

"Tracton!" I shouted, punting its ball forward. "Use Iron Head!"

Tracton roared in response and chugged forward, slamming its enormous steel noggin into the rock face like a wrecking ball. As the thin wall started to crumble, I handed one steel pole to the released Shalegas and took another myself, and we rushed in to jam them vertically between the floor of debris and the newly formed roof.

Ground support, survival edition. I smirked.

We made our way very quickly through the Labyrinth after this. There were plenty of old handrails to use, and if we happened to reach a true dead end (i.e. the edge of the entire maze), we could always turn back down the refreshingly long straight tunnel we'd made and hinge off in another direction.

"We'll have hamburgers tonight!" kitty and I chanted. I felt like I'd also heard that before.

Finally, the troupe of us broke down the final wall, and the light at the end of the cave was in sight. I let out a yell, ripping blades' ball from my bag and lobbing it into the final pool of water.

We emerged from the cave surfing, and I grinned as the light of day assaulted my eyes. So, the end of the Labyrinth had been a sea cave. I could see buildings on the shoreline in the distance – for a split second I recoiled in horror as I thought I'd broken out across the bay from Venesi – but they were a run-down stone and brick cluster (think Housing Association complex), and I knew I'd made it to Silverport Town.

The odd building out was a huge rectangular number, steel girders adorning its facade, hovering over the limp brick flats like a grungy beacon of architectural excess.

As I got closer to the shore, I could make out the large blue letters propped up on the roof of the behemoth, lit up from within. TAPCO. The Tandor Power Company.

I hopped off of blades, grabbed the sleeping kitty by the scruff and hauled us all up onto the beach. I noticed the absence of any music or hubbub as had been the scene in Venesi.

"AHOY! Ari!" Theo hollered from some way behind me, making me jump an imperial mile into the air. I let my heart rate return to normal as he and Cameron caught up to me.

"How'd you get out so fast?" Cameron asked, his fake smile back out for more action.

"Yeah," Theo yelled. "We were like wandering around for ages, and ages, and ages, and everything was just rocks and more rocks. But you're never gonna believe what I found."

"What?" I asked, mildly interested.

"There was this, like, amazing straight tunnel, all the way through to the exit, with steel poles keeping up the roof! It was so cool! I'll show you it next time!"

"Can't wait," I said in a syrupy voice. Lol.

"So anyway," Cameron said to Theo, avoiding my eyes. "That's the TAPCO headquarters, that big building... I'm heading there to visit the archives. You and Ari can stay here, or go through to Snowbank, I don't mind. You have my number if you need anything."

One blue ranger stylus with a dollop of terrorism, please.

"Okay, bye dad! I'm gonna go smash the gym and win the Championship!" Theo yelled.

Poor Theo. He really had no idea.

As we watched Cameron strolling away towards the TAPCO building, I had to flex my jaw muscles really hard to keep my mouth from flapping open and telling him. He didn't need to hear that shit.

"Come on, let's have a battle," Theo shouted at me, his arms going supersonic as they flailed. I mean, I get it, we slept in past noon, but this was still a scarily exorbitant amount of energy for any human to possess.

"I wasn't joking," Theo said with a grin. "I really am gonna make you cry this time."

"All right chum," I replied. "Go, kitty!"

"Go, Gararewl!" Theo cried gleefully. Oh, yippee...

I wasn't in the mood for a long battle then. I was really hankering after that hamburger. But I walled it out with Theo, let Metal Whip wreak its slow and insidious damage against Leech Seed, yada, yada...

Kitty's Swords Dance did help speed things up, but I was forced to immediately switch out once Theo sent in Chimaconda. Blades took the effect of Petrify and was almost knocked out by a Flamethrower from the enemy; its ripped attack came at a high cost of abysmal special defense.

It wasn't what I'd call an enjoyable battle, but it was one I still had a clear upper hand in. Winning just wasn't doing it for me right then. I think it was because Theo's happy, wholesome face loomed in front of me the whole time, rubbing in how disillusioned with my own life I'd become.

"Go, Ellie!" Theo shouted, still cheerful though he'd been worn down to his last pokemon. I could barely fathom the change in this child. While he was growing up, here I was going on a 12 hour bender with someone I barely knew, distrusting of everyone around me...

"Shalegas, use Psybeam!" I ordered my pokemon on the field. I was using special attacks to avoid Ellie's ability, resorting to familiar battle tactics which were almost second nature by now, drifting into an intense apathy worthy of the Metalynx lounging by my side.

"Ellie, Surf!" Theo countered, but it was too late. Shalegas's 31IV and EV-trained HP stat could take a beating, and Electruxo went down having only landed two attacks.

"That's too bad!" Theo said, handing me some of his pocket money with a grin. "Whatever. The less money I have on me, the less likely I'll be robbed. So this was a good outcome."

We both looked around at the dingy alleys and dilapidated rows of flats which lined the waterfront. Theo's observation had been topical.

At least there was one place in town which seemed to fit my funereal mood – the massive TAPCO headquarters. I wasn't even referring to the appearance of the building; the huge loss the company was headed for was depressing enough.

Theo waved and zipped off towards the pokemon centre, and I hit up a seedy joint in the shadow of TAPCO for a burger and a steak for kitty. I ordered a drink as well and let the alcohol seep into me.

"I'm driving here I sit, cursing my government."

I let the song play a little longer. "For not using my taxes to fill holes with more cement," I mumbled along quietly.

I picked up. "Hi Auntie."

"Hello Ari," Auntie clucked in her motherly voice. "Have you been drinking again?"

"No," I replied.

"You need to learn how to deal with your emotions properly. You'll never be employable otherwise."

I rolled my eyes. "High school first, job later..."

I'd already sacrificed my summer holidays to this stint with Bamb'o. What else did she want me to do, systematically fight climate change? Rise through the ranks of politics? One-up Marie Curie in the space of three months?

"Your father called me yesterday."

"Great."

"We talked about your mother."

What did she want me to say? I scowled.

"You're in East Tandor, Lucille was a scientist at TAPCO," Auntie said encouragingly, waiting for me to bite. My mouth stayed shut. Auntie sighed. "Their headquarters are in Silverport Town, you know? Your dad says, you should go in and have a look at the things she worked on. He says you're ready for it."

I grinned lazily to myself. Kellyn says this, Kellyn says that. So he'd taken the easy way out and decided to ignore me like he'd been doing for the past ten years.

"He's not ignoring you," Auntie said suddenly. "He thinks you're mad at him."

"What a surprise," I said in a syrupy voice.

"Don't be petty," Auntie berated. "He's trying. You give a little as well."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Don't sass me, Ari. He's a kind person. Give him a chance."

I hung up on Auntie. Since when had I become this salty? She was probably right, and I had seen Kellyn making an effort, but for some reason I was still sulking in the past, hanging onto my grudge like a person caught in a flash flood might hang on to a tree. I was starting to rival a packet of chips.

I ordered and downed another drink. I had to be fully prepared for my trip into TAPCO, though I was probably just going to find a folder of boring ass research papers.

I left the pub and dawdled slowly down the winding coastal road, until I stood directly underneath the two massive, protruding girders which supported a huge iron atom above the entrance of TAPCO.

The automatic doors hissed shut behind me. I blinked. I blinked again.

There was some real Vinoville shit going on right here.

The entire town had so far been bathed in a sort of dull mediocrity, but the inside of this building gleamed brilliantly, every surface polished so I could just about see my reflection in the walls.

"Hello," said the young woman at the front desk. "May I help you?"

I cleared my throat. "Hi, I'm a collector. I was told you might have some old research materials from a scientist called Lucille?"

"Lucille?" She frowned. "I don't think we have anyone by that name here... I'll just ask my boss though."

She picked up the phone on the desk and tapped her pen on the computer as she waited. "Hi Foster. Yeah, there's someone here who..." I zoned out and stared at the murals on the wall, explaining the process of splitting the atom.

"Er, excuse me...?" The receptionist coughed to get my attention. "Your name?"

"Uh, Morgan. Sorry. Morgan Pierre." Goddammit, that just rolled right off my uncontrollable tongue. The surname too! I groaned internally. At least, and this was small consolation, consistency would help consolidate the lies.

"Mr. Foster's on his way to see you."

I sat and waited. A few seconds later, a jovial-looking man ambled out from a brightly-lit corridor, the heavy steel-and-glass door clicking shut behind him. "So Morgan," he boomed. "We don't get many people asking after Lucille anymore! You're one of those doomsday fanatics, are ya?" His laughed echoed around the lobby.

"Er..." I raised an eyebrow.

"You know, 'I am become death, destroyer of worlds'."

"Bombs?" I asked, surprised. This was a nuclear power company.

"You'll see," he said mysteriously, beckoning for me to follow him.

He swiped us back into the office wing after digging out a visitor's pass, and his expensive bourgie shoes clicked on the tiled floor as he walked.

"You'll need security clearance to see the bulk of it, but I can give you a taster today," he said to me. "The forms are easy; you can knock 'em off in a couple of hours tonight."

We walked on in silence.

"You're going to hate me for saying this." He started talking again to cover the sound of his footsteps. "You have no need to worry about bombs, Lucille wasn't interested in that kind of thing. But I almost think bombs are more understandable – you play with death, everyone knows that's bad. But you play with life... that's when you start getting into the grey area."

And as Foster swiped his key card and let us into a cavernous storage room, I was about to find out just what he had meant.


	31. TAPCO Part I

Spoiler Warning: b i g endgame spoiler at the start of this chapter (basically gives away the connections of some characters). If you don't want to be given big hints about how the game ends, don't read anything before the BOOM, which I put in bold for easy locating. A quick spoiler-free summary of what happens up to that point: Ari goes into the archive room, notices that Cameron isn't there, lets kitty out for some Swords Dance lols, then investigates some (spoilery) stuff about the past and TAPCO, and finally finds a photograph of young Lucille and an unknown man, dressed in lab coats and holding matching Sheebits (a sheep-rabbit hybrid pokemon).

You have no need to worry about Curie spoilers from me. (I'll just leave it at that :P)

...

It was like stepping into a time capsule – huge dust-covered banks of shelves lined the walls from floor to ceiling, stacked to overflowing with folders, cardboard boxes, piles of paper, plastic bags containing bizarre pieces of plastic or metal or something unidentifiable. Two rolling ladders were locked onto rails which ran down either side of the elongated room, ready to provide access to the uppermost shelves, which stood four or five metres off the ground.

"Welcome to the archives," Foster said to me with a satisfied smile. Despite the size of the room, his voice barely carried, absorbed almost completely by the tons and tons of... well, stuff.

"Lucille... Jeez, that really was a long time ago," he continued, frowning as he examined the clapped out plastic tags clipped to the end of each shelf. "That would've been Projects 092 and 094. Of course, Uranium and Plutonium." He smiled. "Helped them remember, you know."

I held in a yawn. I readied myself for the onslaught of fuel rod research papers. I wasn't disinterested, just too tired and inebriated to be conducting a literature review.

Something was niggling at the back of my mind. Of course... Cameron had said he was coming to the archives, yet the room was clearly empty with the exception of Foster and myself. Lies and more lies.

"So what were the projects about?" I asked.

Foster frowned. "I can't give you much information without the clearance papers. There's just some old artefacts in here, scrap paper, shit from the labs, the kind of thing collectors like. You are a collector, aren't you?" He cocked his head to the side. I started to sweat.

"Yes," I said. "But I like to caption my pieces." ...My pieces. Really. Internal Ari was groaning so hard the cardboard boxes were crumpling under the pressure differential.

Foster laughed. "I think 'Project 092' sounds suitably mysterious, don't you reckon?"

"Right."

"Okay, up here on the third shelf. You can stand on the ladder to get a better view." Foster grabbed onto one of the sliding ladders and punted it towards the shelf in question. It sailed past and crashed into the wall.

"Whoops," he said jovially. "Guess that gym membership is paying off."

I gingerly took ahold of the grimy rungs and started to climb. Luckily, I only had to go up about half a metre, or the side effects of the alcohol would be starting to set in.

"I'll just be in my office, number 33 down the hall." Foster gave the speech like he'd done it a million times. "You're on CCTV, so don't even think about trying anything. Come hit me up if you're ready to buy. Price negotiations open."

"Cool, thanks," I replied, and watched Foster make his unhurried way down the extensive corridor between the shelves and out of the archive room.

I turned to the shelf in front of me. I could hear a hissing and yowling coming from within my bag. Someone had had enough of captivity.

Don't do it, sober and rational Ari shouted at me from a future of banishment. Don't let your two hundred pound metal beast out into a cramped room full of unprotected historical artefacts.

Lel, slightly drunk Ari drawled in response, reaching into my bag in the present and hoisting out the shaking Master ball.

I startled giggling uncontrollably as kitty emerged and went of its own accord to practise its Swords Dance. There must've been a little leftover radiation in the room, riling it up. "Cut it out, bro," I gasped, howling with laughter. "I'm gonna fall off the ladder."

I fell off the ladder, doubled over from laughing as kitty wiggled at least three of its hips, all out of time, with a hilariously serious expression on its face. As I hit the floor with a thud, it made its way over to swat me over the head, thinking I was down there to play.

Soon kitty and I were wrestling in the narrow corridor, sending papers and empty zip-lock bags flying. "Stop," I gasped. "Stop, he's gonna kick us out."

With a colossus of effort I finally managed to stop my bruised sides from contracting in another resurgence of hilarity, and held onto the side of the ladder for support as I caught my breath. There was crap lying all over the floor by now, and I bent down to pick up something that had fallen off Lucille's shelf.

Kitty was still going with the Swords Dance behind me. Don't look at it, I begged myself. Don't look at it.

But kitty was quickly forgotten as I caught sight of what it was in my hand. It was a low quality colour photograph, like something dating back to the 90s, and featured a brown-haired young woman standing next to an older man, both in lab coats. They were smiling. In their arms they held a Sheebit each, a small sheep-rabbit hybrid pokemon I had seen in a meme before.

On the back of the photograph, someone had scrawled '094' in biro.

The woman had my nose. I knew immediately that this had been my mother, probably when she was doing her PhD or something nerdy like that.

I climbed back onto the ladder and examined the rest of the shelf's contents. There were disappointingly few leads. Two cardboard boxes were full of those zip-locked pieces of debris, shards of twisted metal and fragments of glass, all numbered. The only thing which caught my eye there was an architect's model of what looked like a big reactor, or a tank or something. It didn't look familiar.

Finally, the only thing remaining was a small annotated handbook on the monitoring and control of industrial-scale nuclear reactors. I picked it up lazily and flicked through. I figured I'd seen the handwriting before somewhere, but I couldn't put my finger on it. It was probably on some old junk Auntie had at home, I reasoned to myself. This was my mother, after all.

Ah! There was something I'd missed. Two yellowing wads of office paper, crumpled and trapped at the very back of the shelf, between the wall and the boxes. A Tricwe scuttled out from under the paper as I lifted it. Gross.

I started to unfurl the pages, and I gasped. Rows of grainy date-stamped images, a flash of green...

**BOOM!**

I shrieked, and gripped tightly onto the ladder's rungs as a huge shock wave reverberated through the building, bringing with it a thunderous rumbling. The walls started to shake and groan. An earthquake?! The photograph dropped from where I'd left it on the shelf, buried as boxes and folders were thrown off the upper tiers.

"Kitty!" I shouted. "We gotta get out of here!"

I dived out of the way as a flash of metal lit up the corner of my eye. The heavy steel valve smashed into the floor moments later, reducing two tiles to broken shards.

I reached out to grab kitty... I gasped. No! It stood frozen in the middle of its manic Swords Dance, glowing an intense green. This was stronger than any stylus attack I'd seen. Hand shaking, I bent back my arm and felt around in my bag for the Master ball...

Get up, you fool! sober and rational Ari screamed at me. MOVE!

My reactions were sluggish, hampered by the drinks I'd had. I made some attempt to pull myself from the floor, but I was struggling to find purchase.

Small items smacked down around and on top of me, pinging into my arms or legs and bringing a flash of pain.

The tremors were only intensifying. Soon, even though I renewed my efforts to stand, it was impossible to get any balance. It was like someone had thrown the whole building, foundations and all, into a fluidised bed.

"FOSTER!" I shrieked at long last, still mortified in that dire time by my own neediness.

"ARI?!" a deep voice shouted back at me from somewhere outside. "Ari, where are you?!"

"Here! Help me!" I hollered, pushing my pride down. I'd just have to suck it up. I didn't want to die.

There wasn't time for it to strike me as strange that Foster had called me by my real name. I shimmied forward as the innermost shelves started to break loose from their wall supports, collapsing inwards into the corridor and releasing the rest of their load with a clamorous smash.

"Tracton," I groaned, trying desperately to find any of my balls. I could only feel the sharp edges of a potion, the rough coil of an escape rope...

"Ari, I'm coming!" the person outside roared, and I heard the archive room door crash against the wall as it was thrown open with tremendous force. I lifted my head to see who it was.

Something hard and heavy slammed into the back of my neck, and everything went black.

...

"Hahaha!"

Hard concrete. An uncomfortable pressure on my left arm. Scraping sounds.

"Ari, hang in there." Kellyn's voice.

I drifted in and out of consciousness.

Something heavy bumped into my side. I opened my eyes and saw another flash of green, some grassy material underneath... That was my kitty.

I forced my eyelids to stay open, though it took a fantastic effort.

There was some sort of haze in the air. It singed my nostrils as I breathed it in. I could see the white walls of a corridor through the brown-green haze, but they ended abruptly a few metres away, which I couldn't understand.

I remembered something hitting my neck. Heart pounding, I tested out my hands and feet. Please, I prayed. Not the legs. Anything but the legs. Left foot, kick. Right foot, kick. Phew! I let out my breath, dizzy with relief. Right hand, flex. Left hand... I panicked again when I realised I couldn't move it.

It took me another few seconds to realise that was because it was being crushed in someone else's hand.

Turning my head to look up my arm, I was taken over by such a blinding flash of pain that I almost released myself to the sweet embrace of death, dizzying nausea flooding over me. My neck had been badly hurt.

"Ari? Ari, try not to move!" Kellyn shouted again.

I realised he was pulling me. The scraping sounds were my body being dragged along the gritty concrete floor, and kitty being pulled alongside me. I could hear Kellyn gasping and straining.

So it was my father who had saved my life, and that of my kitty.

"Stop where you are!" that high pitched voice came again. Curie. "How inconvenient that you should turn up... I can't hurt you yet. Urayne, take them, put them with the others."

"Wait!" Kellyn roared, panting from the exertion. "Who are you?! Don't you dare touch me or Ari!"

Kellyn continued to shout and yell obscenities. I felt myself being hoisted into the air, something warm beneath my body... I'd felt that soft heat before. Right, in that dream state, flying over Venesi City... I'd been sitting on Urayne, somehow.

"Put us down, I order you as Tandor chief ranger!" Kellyn bellowed, taking out his capture styler and trying to force Urayne to back down. Of course, it had absolutely no effect on the huge green beast – I suspected Urayne wasn't even a living thing, but more of a machine – and we were carried through the air, out of what I could now see was the broken shell of the TAPCO headquarters.

I gasped as I looked down, and it wasn't just because of the substantial height. The big building, which had once loomed proudly over Silverport, lay in ruins, the roof torn off, sections of wall crumbling into piles of rubble, the huge iron atom resting on the edge of the sea cliff at least a hundred metres away.

Kellyn had quietened down. Urayne was not harming us, instead carrying us gently through the air across town.

"Ari, are you all right?" Kellyn asked me solemnly.

"I'm fine," I said, wincing as my neck reminded me I was not fine. "Just a flesh wound, I'm guessing."

Kellyn scowled. "I'm gonna kill that bastard."

I laughed morbidly. "They'll probably kill you first." I pointed down at the enormous hand-like appendage we were cradled in.

"I know. I'm angry," Kellyn said sullenly. "I hate not being in control."

Maybe we were more alike than I'd realised.

"For sure, me too..."

Wait, what was I doing?! So he'd saved my life, but he still didn't deserve my friendship. Not yet. I quickly put a clamp on my runaway mouth.

"I'm sorry," Kellyn said. "I'm so sorry, Ari." The S word. I couldn't believe it. I sneaked a look at his face, and it was flushed beneath the grime and dust it had picked up in TAPCO, the bags under his eyes accentuated by Urayne's radiant aura.

"I'm sorry I sent you in there. I'm sorry I couldn't get you out before they arrived. I'm sorry I keep putting you in danger. And I'm sorry..." His voice caught. For a second I was terrified he was going to start crying. "...that I've never been there for you. I should've been with you when you found out about Lucille. You shouldn't have had to go in there alone."

I stared at him in shock. I had to say something, I had to respond. Like I told you before, I wasn't a heartless person.

"It's okay," I opted for. I tried hard to put some emotion into my voice, but it wasn't happening. I gulped down the lump in my throat. "I can take care of myself. I'll be fine. Me and Tracton can stand up to Curie, we've done it before."

"Curie?" Kellyn frowned.

I jerked a thumb over my shoulder, still trying not to move my neck. "You know, creepy gas mask person?"

Kellyn looked away, scowling. "I didn't realise you were on a first-name basis."

"We're tight," I said, crossing my fingers.

Kellyn's face darkened further. The words exploded from him in a rush. "What the hell, Ari? What do you mean by that? That person... Curie... is dangerous. You need to stay far, far away. I don't care what they're telling you – run, and don't stop! You're a smart kid. Snap out of it!"

"It was just a joke," I muttered, averting my eyes. "I made up the name myself."

Kellyn's breathing was laboured. His face twitched as he struggled to find the right words.

But before he had the chance to respond, Urayne started to descend. We held on tight, the paralysed, irradiated kitty wedged between us.

Urayne set us gently down onto the flat, walled roof of a building. I swayed as my legs were forced to support my weight, and Kellyn reached out to grab my arm and steady me.

Then suddenly, Urayne was gone in a flash, responding to some unheard command from its partner, leaving behind only the traces of that thick green-brown haze which followed it everywhere it went.

"Ari!" a terrified voice called out. "Ari, help us!"

I lifted my stiff neck, stars flashing before my eyes. I struggled to take in the scene in the deepening dusk. A burst of bright red... and yellow... Theo! And Cameron!

But they weren't running towards me. They were tied up, bound to the heavy antenna cluster protruding from the top of the roof.

Before I had any time to react, someone grabbed roughly onto my hands and bent them behind my back, lashing rope around them. I fought and kicked, but now there were two of them, and I was carried cursing over to Theo and tied up to him.

Kellyn had started up his shouting again, but it was no use. The blue rangers were paying no heed to anyone from the real world, going about their duties mechanically, like mindless NPCs in a video game.

"What happened?" I groaned, the circulation ceasing in my hands.

Kellyn was dragged over and trussed up opposite Cameron.

"They came and got me when I was in the pokemon centre," Theo said, tears running down his face.

"And they took me from the archive room..." Cameron growled.

Liar, liar, pants on fire.

"I swear, if they did anything to hurt you, Theo..."

"I'm fine," Theo sniffed. He didn't look fine, but that was probably just the weepy state he'd worked himself into. His body and legs seemed to be thrashing with a healthy limberness.

We were all distracted from our individual hells by the arrival of Curie. Perched on the shoulder of the once again huge Urayne, they surveyed the group of us, surrounded by their blue ranger minions, and laughed.

They laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

Kellyn and I exchanged a horrified glance.

"Hahaha! Hahahahaha!" They snickered and snorted in an effort to halt the giggles.

"Well... You're probably wondering why you're all here," they said eventually, a tiny snort escaping at the last moment. The sudden silence brought out the distant sound of sirens. This seemed to amuse Curie further.

"You're here... Just for my entertainment, really. It would be pointless to destroy you now – the scene is incomplete without an audience. But look at you, all five of you, finally together in the same place... How long has it been? Ten years, maybe never? I just had to see it to believe it. Ahahaha!"

Kellyn was struggling in the binding ropes, his face puce with anger.

"Anyway, I got what I want..." Curie continued light-heartedly. "The location of all TAPCO's processing plants, storage buildings, fuel dumps, power plants... in the whole region! Urayne will be ready soon. And when it is, we'll be waiting for you. That's a promise." They erupted into giggles again. "A promise is usually a nice thing, isn't it?"

But I wasn't listening. Something Curie said had set off clanging alarm bells in my head. Yes, that was it.

'Look at you, all five of you.'

I counted, though there was really no need. I already knew. Kellyn, me, Cameron, Theo. There were four of us bound to the antenna cluster.

I looked around, gasping as pain from the wound clamped down on my neck, but there was nobody else here except the blue rangers. Who was number five? Surely they couldn't have been talking about Urayne?

Curie turned, seeming to look directly at me through the oddly translucent eye holes in the radiation mask. "Untie them, rangers. We'll be leaving now."

A tiny giggle.

"Curie out."

I gasped. Kellyn gasped.

"You said you made up that name," Kellyn hissed to me.

"They can read my mind, remember?" I hissed back.

I was mostly surprised Curie had actually liked the name idea.

The rangers cut our ropes, a stylus-controlled pack of Tanscure hovering at the edges of the roof as insurance against heroic acts. Curie and Urayne vanished with a bang and a flash of green light, and the rangers bled away stealthily, cutting down to the underground via a huge vertical pipe hugging the side of the building. I peered down after them, feeling like my head was about to roll off, and saw metal rungs nailed into the side. What was this place?

The Tanscure, released from the stylus, growled, snarled, and leapt down lithely from the single-storey building, slinking away in different directions, back to their homes.

"Ari, you're hurt. We need to get you to the hospital now," Kellyn said firmly.

"I'm fine," I croaked.

"You're not fine," Cameron backed up. "That's a really nasty gash on your neck."

He brought out Yatagaryu and beckoned to Theo, nodding towards us. Theo sighed and let his Pajay out of its ball. "All yours," he said.

"Thanks Theo," Kellyn said. "That's a fine kid you've raised, Cam."

Of course, all smiles and praise for other people's children.

The four of us flew off the walled roof on our pokemon. I had a quick glimpse of the building we'd been on; it seemed to be some sort of abandoned warehouse, the windows blackened, some boarded over.

"So what now?" Cameron asked once we'd landed in front of the hospital and I was being lifted onto a stretcher.

"My rangers and I will head north with all haste," Kellyn said severely. "The closest target is the waste storage site near Snowbank Town. If that material is released to the atmosphere, or the groundwater..."

"What about you, dad?" Theo said, grasping tightly onto Daddy's arm. My expression was sour.

"I'm going to Power Plant Omicron," Cameron said decisively. "They'll need backup once Curie finishes at Snowbank. I'll tell them to shut down the plant and relocate the fuel rods."

Something was still suss about Cameron. I narrowed my eyes at him. He pretended not to have seen.

Curie had included Cameron in their statement of 'all five of you', but was that a cover? Did Curie want us to trust Cameron, so he could continue to bat for both sides, so to speak?

I had to know. The others left as I was hooked onto a drip and a horrifically painful solution was applied to the gash in my neck. Soon, the drugs were making me woozy (oops, should've told the nurses about the alcohol I'd had), but the burning need for answers was as strong as ever.

As soon I was left alone in my ward, I grabbed my phone from my bag (everything in place) and pulled up a google search, hoping inspiration would hit me up along the way. I knew nobody in town, nobody who could get information for me. Unless... I quickly entered 'TAPCO Silverport emergency contacts' and clicked on the webpage.

Darcy Foster, mobile number. Jackpot.

He and his SIM just better have gotten out of that building alive.

"Hello? Who's this?" Foster barked when he answered. I let out my breath.

"It's Kellyn, Tandor chief ranger," I mumbled, willing my lips not to give in to the numbing effect of the drugs. "I have an important question to ask you."

"Uh..." I could hear Foster deliberating with himself. "What is it, Chief? We've just had an attack at the HQ, I'm sure you know by now."

"Yes, I know, my rangers are there," I said hurriedly before my facial nerves could shut down on me. "But I need to know the owner of a particular building in Silverport, it's urgent."

"Okay, and you called me for – sorry," Foster seemed to shake himself. "I'll do my best. Which building is it?"

"That old abandoned warehouse with a pipe on the side, western edge of town." I mashed my lips together, desperately trying to keep myself from slurring.

Foster laughed humourlessly. "I know it. That used to be a TAPCO building, but someone was very keen to buy it from us last year."

"Who?" I pressed, my stomach sinking as I waited for the answer.

"One of our employees, actually. Mr. Cameron Caine, an electrical engineer from Moki Town."


	32. TAPCO Part II

Spoiler Chat: again no need to worry about the mentions of Lucille, Cameron, Curie, etc. here, as this Sheebit stuff is part of my separate story and has nothing to do with the game plot.

...

I thanked Foster and hung up, but unfortunately not before he'd taken the chance to complain about the TAPCO archives being completely destroyed, and the inadequacy of the rangers' emergency response.

I was still reeling from what I'd learned.

It didn't make sense – even if Cameron really was working with the blue rangers, why would he need to buy a dilapidated old building on the outskirts of an obscure township?

Of course... It had to be something to do with TAPCO. That shouldn't have taken me this long to figure out; don't do drugs. It was probably as simple as giving the blue rangers a point of access to Silverport, so they could come up to assist Curie when the time came to break in to the headquarters.

It was a logical conclusion, but extreme even for the overdramatic Curie.

I was starting to fade out of consciousness as the painkillers found the alcohol in my body. This was awkward.

"Hey," I called to a passing nurse, feeling like my lips were melting off my face.

"...Oh my god," the nurse said, rushing to the heart monitor by my bedside.

"Too much..." I slurred, and suddenly she had three heads, and the distorted image before my eyes darkened to black.

...

"Ari."

I know. You're getting tired of this. My journey is just turning into a glorified encyclopaedia of all the ways I can possibly lose consciousness. But what are you griping at me for? Name one time it's been my fault...

"Ari, can you hear me?"

A kindly voice. Beeping in the background. At least my thoughts were lucid and I knew clearly where I was – Silverport hospital, having been hit in the neck by a falling shelf and given an overdose of painkillers.

I opened my eyes.

I almost shrieked aloud. WHAT IN THE NAME OF...

I was in an unfamiliar bedroom, posters for shows I'd never heard of pasted on the walls. Kellyn and, more horrifying, the young Lucille were standing over me, as well as a doctor with a clipboard and sombre-looking nurses... and beside me were two huge, ancient-looking machines with banks of flashing lights, running plastic tubes into my body...

"Ari, can you hear me?" The voice came back, firmer. But nobody in the scene had spoken. "...Someone get the doctor."

"The doctor?" I heard Theo's voice say. "They're always like this, you can never wake them up in the morning. Watch this!"

There was a scuffle, I heard multiple sets of footsteps, and a jolt of electricity coursed down my arm and into my chest, making me spring upright like one of those beds that throw you onto the floor when it's time to get up.

I blinked.

The 00s-aesthetic vision I'd just seen was gone. Before me was bright hospital strip lighting, and there was nothing beside me but a drip and a heart monitor, one nurse and the smug-looking Theo stroking his Electruxo.

I let out the breath I hadn't realised I was holding.

What the fuck had that been?! A flashback? But I'd never seen anything like that room in my entire life, and I certainly had no memories of Lucille.

I scowled as the nurse's face relaxed into a smile. "We'll have to keep a closer eye on you!" she said cheerfully. "Your stitches are healing up fine. You should be able to leave tomorrow morning, once the drugs wear off."

Stitches huh? I reached up a hand to feel them and immediately regretted my entire life as I seized up from the stinging pain. I'd been out longer than I thought.

Theo returned to his seat by the bed, playing on his grimy phone, as the nurse wandered away.

"What're you doing here anyway?" I said, a bit too snappily.

Theo grinned. "I felt sorry for you, cos your dad ran off like that without even checking you were okay. So I came back."

I glared at him. Like his dad was any better. "At least Kellyn isn't –"

I stopped short. I'd vowed to keep quiet about Cameron. Fuck drugs. Don't take drugs.

"Isn't what? Kellyn isn't what?" Theo asked, scrunching up his face.

"Nothing, just adult business."

"You're only two years older than me," Theo whined. "If you can know, then I can know too."

"No."

"Stop being mean!" Theo yelled. "I sat here for six hours watching someone sew up your neck..."

I waited for him to continue. He giggled.

"Though that was actually kinda cool. I should become a doctor." He made stabbing motions with his fingers.

I lay there in silence for a bit, not knowing how to express my gratitude. "Go get some sleep," I said eventually, catching sight of the clock on the wall. Half past midnight. "We can meet up in the morning and go to Snowbank together, okay?"

"Fine," Theo grumbled, but I could tell he was glad. He didn't even bother returning Ellie to its ball, and they trudged off together, eyelids drooping closed in exhaustion.

I tried to go back to sleep. The drugs should've helped. But the more I lay there, the more fiddly I became. My leg started bouncing up and down, making the crappy hospital bed squeak.

I lifted my head experimentally. It didn't hurt too much. Now the wound was sealed, it was easier to move.

My bag was where I'd left it beside the bed. I could hear a hissing and yowling coming from one of the Master balls. Joy of joys, here we go again.

Don't do it, sober and rational Ari shouted at me from deep inside. Don't let your flighty two hundred pound steel beast out into the hospital ward at quarter to one in the morning.

All was quiet outside my cubicle, with the exception of beeping monitors and the occasional footsteps as nurses passed by. Don't do it.

Drugged-up Ari giggled. I reached for the ball, and kitty emerged with a caterwaul. I stared fondly at it. It stared back.

"Fine," I said, rolling my eyes. "Do the Swords Dance."

This wasn't good news for my stitches. As kitty once again exploded into uncoordinated motion, its four hips swinging out of phase from side to side, I was laughing so hard I swore I could hear pinging, both from my stitches and my ward neighbours banging on the steel partitions.

I was already feeling better. I honestly couldn't lie there any longer, I was going to go mad.

I pressed the nurse call button by the side of my bed then tidied up my hair as much as possible, and was looking marginally presentable by the time she peeped into my cubicle.

"Hi," I said salaciously.

...Dude, that was a joke.

"Hi," I said normally. "I just got a call from my father, he wants to take me home. He's outside waiting to pick me up." I almost started laughing sardonically at how big of a joke that was.

"Oh okay, sure." The nurse looked bored. She unhooked me from the heart monitor and drip, not even bothering to check. Maybe she'd just seen Kellyn accompanying me earlier, and everyone knew and trusted Kellyn.

I smirked. I should milk that for all it's worth.

Outside the hospital, I breathed in the fresh coastal air and it brought a corny smile to my face, making me recoil in horror.

I quickly hurried down the road before I could catch myself having any more embarrassing emotions. I wasn't sure which way to go, but we'd left the warehouse to our right, so I turned and made my way in a vaguely leftwards direction, facing away from the hospital.

"Where are we going?" kitty asked as I turned on the PST to interpret its hissing.

"Paying an old friend a visit," I replied.

Silverport Town was small and the streets were arranged in an easily navigable grid, so we reached the dilapidated old warehouse in less than ten minutes.

I felt like I was going to regret this, but there was something more than an access point down there. And it had something to do with TAPCO and Lucille.

There was a door set into the chain-link fence, padlocked, but that was no issue. Almost all my steel types could cut through wire somehow, with the exception of the special-attacking Shalegas, but that could simply beam itself into the air and fly over the fence.

Kitty was out already so got to do the honours. Its tail slashed through the flimsy chain links, tearing a hole large enough for the both of us to climb through.

"Well done," I said awkwardly to it, suddenly remembering Tracton's scathing criticism of my uncaring attitude. "Nice... tail."

"Thanks," kitty replied. "Sounds fake, but thanks."

"I'm working on it," I grumbled.

We passed through the fence, and suddenly I had the feeling again that eyes were on me. I swivelled and let my eyes bore into the darkness, but there was nobody there.

I shook my head to clear the feeling and crept forward, in a zigzag line like I'd seen in action movies, and reached the clapped out, cross-barred door of the warehouse. I wasn't interested in the building. I was almost certain it would be empty.

Instead, I hugged the walls and shuffled round to the huge pipe the blue rangers had gone down. Sure enough, there was a small door at ground level in addition to the one that led onto the roof.

I wasn't going to risk cutting through this one. Strange clangs and hisses, distinctly man-made in their regularity, reverberated through the cavernous space in the pipe. Supposedly they were reaching me from some underground location.

I let Tracton out of its ball, finger to my lips to suppress its roar. "Pick the lock," I whispered. But though Tracton tried to repeat its feat from the Epsilon power plant bunker, the lock stubbornly refused to budge.

Voices! I quickly sucked Tracton back into its ball, and clamped a hand over kitty's mouth, pulling us both back into the shadows at the side of the warehouse.

Heart pounding, I watched a small group of blue rangers file out from the huge column, each holding something in their arms. I went cold when I realised what they were.

Sheebits.

The little brown pokemon struggled in their captors' arms.

The first ranger in line placed his Sheebit on the ground, and it cried out in fright as a bright light was shone into its eyes. Then a stylus must have been turned on, for the Sheebit stiffened up and started to glow, and immediately its eyes turned red and luminous.

Two rangers calmly placed a life-sized plastic Tracton in front of the Sheebit, and said something I couldn't make out.

The Sheebit's fluorescing red eyes built up a horrifying intensity, and suddenly, with barely any warning, the energy in them was released in a shockingly powerful blast which sent the ground underneath the Tracton exploding in a shower of bitumen and concrete. Then the red glow started pulsating upwards from where it had torn the ground apart, passing through the flimsy plastic shell and into the model Tracton.

I watched on in horror.

This was unlike any pokemon move I had ever seen.

And its action in two stages? I could scarcely believe my eyes.

I frantically searched my mind for what I knew about Sheebit. There was no way I was going to bring out my noisy pokepod and give away my presence.

The creature was a ground type, the starter evolution of Laissure, the big pokemon which had caused the earthquake in Moki Town... But that pulse of energy did not have any of the hallmarks of a ground-type move.

The red glow in the Tracton died down, and the Sheebit was picked up.

The next ranger in line placed their Sheebit down in the same position. The lights and stylus were turned on again. I watched on, frozen, as the same apocalyptic move blasted from the tiny pokemon's eyes.

This went on for quite some time. There were at least ten Sheebits, and each one was tested, producing identical results.

I was starting to realise why the model target was a Tracton.

Curie knew I'd managed to train my Tracton, rendering even the new stylus useless. So here they were, in a last ditch attempt at resistance, producing destroyer Sheebits to cover that weakness.

But that murderous move... Ground type? Nuclear type? Something else entirely?

I watched on as the rangers nodded to each other, satisfied.

It was impossible that there wasn't a connection between Lucille's research and what was going on here. The questions swirled around in my mind, making me dizzy at the thought of everything I didn't know, and would likely never know.

The pieces of the wrecked plastic Tracton were swept up unceremoniously into a black bin liner, and I swore I saw steam rising from the pitted ground beneath it.

I watched the rangers file back into their big column, and the lock clicked shut, but not before a deafening cacophony of sound had crept up and assaulted my ears through the open door. I was in shock when I finally processed what it was - the overlaying cries of innumerable Sheebits. What the hell...The ten I'd seen must have just been a testing sample. There must have been hundreds, yet literally ONE DAY had passed since I'd been atop the Labyrinth. (And half of it had been taken up entertaining Curie on the roof...)

Barely enough time to train up one pokemon, let alone an entire army.

Seriously, what was going on?

I was sure there was another lab down there, but I was powerless to go any further; this was the end of the road.

I sighed and, deflated, trudged back towards the boundary fence with kitty, not even bothering with my zigzag pattern.

I made my way back to the brightly lit pokemon centre, suddenly tired as death itself. I barely had the energy to pay for a room, drag myself up the stairs to the first floor, shut my door and collapse onto the bed.


	33. Route 16 - Waste storage site

Spoiler Chat: again generic spoilery air re Urayne, but no major hints about the game plot or human characters.

...

Unbelievable, I thought, waking up and stretching. Fucking unbelievable.

...Not that I'd gone to sleep fully dressed (though Auntie might beg to differ on that one), but that I'd gotten myself embroiled in yet another hurricane of bitterly incomprehensible drama.

I desperately needed to see and touch something normal and familiar. Kitty should do the job nicely.

I picked up its Master ball from the windowsill where I didn't remember leaving it, and kitty emerged with a yowl.

I stared.

Was this an actual joke?

Dangling from a string just behind where its balls would be, kitty was sporting the two wads of yellowing office paper I'd found in the archives, like some sort of lewd fashion accessory.

I tore the string from where it was draped over kitty's tail.

Unfurling one of the papers, I caught sight of some scrawled writing which wasn't there yesterday.

'I heard it hissing in here when I got back from the hospital (you weren't there, but you left these pieces of paper so I picked them up for you). Lock your door next time. You could be burgled. – T

Pee Es. Doesn't this look like Urayne?'

In a flash, I'd opened up the rest of the paper and whipped it up closer to my face.

Theo was right. (Embarrassing I know, but remember I had only had a split second to survey these documents before Curie conveniently decided to blow up the building I was in).

The date-stamped rows of photos... Every single one of them featured a brownish haze which I'd attributed to poor photo or printing quality. But in the middle of the photos was that flash of green I'd seen. Urayne.

I frowned. In each successive picture, the green shape was bigger and better defined. Was it possible... that this was a record of the birth of Urayne?

I wasn't too concerned; eager people kept ultrasound albums of their own developing children all the time. The date stamps were what worried me. The final picture was dated 25/11/2006, the date of the explosion at the Epsilon Power Plant.

I realised kitty was hissing at me, waiting for its breakfast. Groaning, I dragged myself from the bed, slipped the papers into my bag and accompanied kitty downstairs to the dining room.

$3 for a bowl of cat food. Damn, with all the hoo-ha over Curie and TAPCO and the blue rangers, our government had obviously given up the trivial task of reining in rampant inflation.

I slipped three dollar coins into the machine, grumbling.

I quickly ran over the rest of the shit I'd found yesterday in my mind.

The photograph, burned into my brain by now (I realised now, the hospital flashback Lucille had looked exactly the same as the one in the photo), was of a project entirely related to what the blue rangers had been doing at Cameron's warehouse last night. I refused to believe that was a coincidence.

Next, the small model reactor. Still had no clue what that could be.

And finally, the annotated handbook... I was really getting nowhere. Scowling as kitty slurped up its breakfast, the sounds of pampering and excess, I went to return my wallet to my bag.

...What the fuck?

My hand was almost completely blackened, the palm covered in some sort of soot. I looked at my wallet. Same.

Once I'd torn open the side pocket of my bag, I realised why.

There, crushed to ash beneath the huge weight of my extravagant wealth, lay the remains of the charred notebook I'd picked up in the Epsilon power plant bunker.

I gasped.

Although the book was destroyed, my memory of it wasn't. The scribbles in the handbook, with their very extra g's and a's (think Times New Roman), were made by the same person who'd written those notes. That was where I'd seen the handwriting before!

"Are you having a seizure?" Theo's voice yelled at me from across the room.

My head snapped up. I realised I'd been staring at the wall, mouth hanging open as my brain ran on with its conclusions. This was why people thought scientists were all crazy.

I wandered over to join Theo, making nasty oinking noises as he tucked into a deluxe English breakfast. This was unnecessarily unkind, but sometimes I just couldn't control myself.

Theo giggled. "Go ahead, eat a fruit salad, I don't care."

I ordered a deluxe English breakfast.

Once we'd done and checked out of our rooms, we surveyed the curiously serene cityscape, once again back to its limp self, void of the activity which had been swarming the hospital and TAPCO headquarters yesterday. The big building stood almost abandoned now, the only movement coming from the flapping yellow tape which had been stretched around its perimeter.

I guessed nobody had the energy to care around here. Hence, an easy target for Curie.

Theo and I trudged north, Theo consulting the GPS on his pokepod.

"Snowbank Town's all the way up that mountain," he said, pointing. Just outside of Silverport, I could see a large snow-capped colossus of rock jutting from the flat coastal plain.

"Fantastic," I said.

Just like I'd dreaded that first day walking to Bamb'o's lab, I was going to have to climb another hill. Except calling this thing a hill would be like calling the ropey Coatlith a worm.

It was a long, hard, trek. Theo and I teamed up as double battlers to take on hoardes of trainers taking advantage of the slopes, Like I'd thought, I was excessively OP compared to him now. For an update in levels, I'd trained all but the transport slave pyrite to level 54-56, and Theo's highest, Ellie, had just hit 52 on the last battle.

His type coverage was invaluable though; steel and grass types always took me a long time, so Chimaconda became a friend.

We kept our heads down, grinding and walking, occasionally breaking into trivial small talk, but Theo had long ago given up trying to coax (read: forcefully rip) my secrets out of me, so the journey was mostly spent in companionable silence.

Neither of us realised three hours had passed until we hit the snow line.

"Brrr!" Theo exclaimed suddenly, exploding into convulsive shivers.

I looked at the goose pimples rippling under his scrappy T-shirt. I was thankful I hadn't trashed my hoodie in Venesi City.

We walked for a few minutes more, Theo enduring his misery in silence for a change, and almost crashed right into a huge, half-buried weatherboard sign embellished with black plastic letters: 'TR VELL RS HA EN' and a faded arrow pointing to the left, down a tiny path which weaved out of sight behind a bank of enormous pine trees, their dark snow-laden boughs sagging all the way down to the ground, hiding their trunks and creating an impenetrable wall.

"Ready to get murdered?" I said cheerfully.

Theo's shivers broke out afresh.

"Come on. You're gonna die anyway if you don't get some warm clothes."

I got out my Metalynx for safety in any case, and Theo let Chimaconda out. We sent the beasts ahead of us, footsteps crunching in the snow as the group of us rounded the big ominous bend formed by the trees.

'...Some you win and some you lose, it's all a catch 22!' The upbeat instrumental of the song blasted out, making Theo start dancing despite himself.

I stared.

The music was coming from a set of speakers attached above the door of a welcoming, rosy wooden hut. The building was bathed in soft orange lamp light, surrounded by chatting trainers and skiers seated at sheltered benches. Most cradled a mug of hot chocolate, coffee, or for the brave, a bottle of ice cold beer.

'Travellers' Haven', read the elegant cursive script above the window.

We entered, and Theo started convulsing afresh as the warm, log-fire-heated air assaulted his frozen limbs

"Ah, welcome!" said the owner, giving us a friendly smile and wiping her flour-dusted hands on a cheery striped apron. "The poor child, he must've been really cold to get you down that path." She turned and opened a cupboard, bringing out a pile of woollen jumpers for Theo to try on.

"The sign could use updating," I agreed.

The owner winked. "It's completely intentional. Can you imagine what this place would look like if the tour companies found us?"

I surveyed the already packed tables and booths. She was right.

"You could expand," I said.

She rolled her eyes. "You're not from round here, are you? Much further in any direction, and we're in crevasse territory. You can't even pay developers to touch it. And you're way too young to be so concerned about money; franchising would destroy the community. That's twenty-four ninety-five for the jumper," she said sunnily without even breaking for breath.

"Hey, I'm paying," Theo said haughtily, shoving me out of the way. "I've got my own money. I'm not their kid."

Fine by me, I thought with a smirk, as Theo counted out the notes.

"I'll get a chicken pie and a cider please," I said, pointing at the fridge.

"Sure," the woman said, winking at me. "On the house."

"Not fair!" Theo shrieked. "I'm poorer than Ari! No way!"

"Kid," the woman said jovially. "If you consciously made the decision to travel to Snowbank Town in a T-shirt, you deserve to pay."

Savage! Theo's face imploded into a scowl.

We sat on the end of an outdoor bench and I shared my cider with Theo. Get the kids started early. Even though the mood was friendly and relaxed as we bopped along to the seedy pop music, I felt uneasy, again like I was being watched.

I looked around and surveyed the other patrons. I saw nobody I recognised, though they were all swathed in such thick layers I doubt I could've identified even Auntie.

Finishing up, I ditched the bottle into the recycling bin (which was decorated with a smiley earth graphic and numerous posters advertising veganism and BioDor, a power company which seemed to burn natural gas from sugar cane or something liberal like that).

"C'mon Chima," Theo called to his pokemon, which was in the process of digging into the snow about twenty metres away.

I looked at kitty sleeping by my side. Our pokemon suited us. My scepticism about Bamb'o's dumb ass quiz had been unfounded.

Rugged up, we left the Travellers' Haven and started the final stretch up to Snowbank Town. Theo dive-bombed into all the snow drifts at the side of the path, carelessly soaking his new jumper.

There were fewer and fewer trainers the further up we went, and for some time it was just the two of us walking together.

"Woah, sick," Theo said, darting off the path and towards a barb-wire fence.

"Get back!" I yelled, grabbing onto him just in time. "It's electric, you moron." I pointed at the big yellow sign.

Next to it was another sign which made me gulp. The familiar black and yellow wheel which signified radiation. I saw what looked like TAPCO's logo stamped onto the wooden poles holding up the barbed wire.

This must've been what Kellyn was talking about. The nuclear fuel dump outside Snowbank Town.

"There's nothing there," Theo said, disappointed.

"Come on, we'd all be dead if they didn't put it underground. That's probably the entrance." I pointed to what looked like an unassuming chimney in the middle of what was otherwise just a sloping field, the snow unmarred even by footsteps.

"Boring," Theo said, losing interest. "Come on, let's go! There's another gym up there."

As Theo turned to run off, I stared a little while longer through the fence at the dump entrance... The feeling was stronger than ever now, and the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up straight. It's just the electricity, I told myself.

I turned and ran after Theo.

We walked for another few minutes, but the scenery was unchanging. Snow drifts, the odd pine, and ice-type pokemon darting shyly between them. It was when I noticed the path we were following was starting to slope back down the mountainside that I gave in and admitted we were lost.

"Where are we?" Theo said, shivering in his wet jumper. "It shouldn't be this far."

It was starting to get dark, and I quickly checked my watch. 6.30pm. I shivered myself. "Check your GPS," I said.

"It says to keep going straight."

"Then we keep going straight," I said firmly. Though I knew something was far wrong, one of us had to take charge of the situation around here.

We crunched through the snow, our pokemon also battered from the long day of fighting, and barely managed to fend off the wild Anderinds and Sableye which populated the high latitudes. All my pokemon were running on their last PP reserves.

Turn around, the voice in my head said. Turn around, you can make it back to the Travellers' Haven before dark.

I watched the GPS and ignored the voice in my head, though it was getting harder to silence. Eventually, I'd pushed it down for so long that it was no longer true – it would be dark long before we came close to civilisation again.

Part of me was hitting myself for being a stubborn twat, the other part refused to back down, pushing angrily ahead as we wandered further and further off course.

The third part of me, the part which actually valued me and my life, was already used to being weakened by gross neglect, and didn't even bother to pipe up.

"We gotta stop," Theo cried. "I'm too tired."

"Where?!" I snapped. "Beneath the trees?!"

BOOM!

"Ahhhh!" Theo screamed, his exhaustion forgotten as he jumped into the air. "Oh my god Ari, what was that?!"

"How the hell should I know?!" I yelled back, terrified myself.

The boom lasted much longer than the others from the past few days, and seemed to be reverberating off the sides of the mountains, bounced back to the ground by the cold air above.

After thirty seconds of rumbling, I knew something was wrong. Heart pounding, I squinted frantically into the darkness, trying to find the source of the explosion. I could see nothing.

That's when I felt the ground trembling beneath my feet.

Anderinds and other pokemon suddenly started to charge past us with ferocious speed, ignoring us entirely in their quest to escape the mountain.

The trembling was growing in intensity.

"AVALANCHE!" I shouted, suddenly understanding. Though the mountain air was freezing, I was sweating uncontrollably. I grabbed onto Theo's arm. The stitches in my neck were pulsing as blood rushed up to my brain.

"HELP!" Theo screamed when he saw me rooted to the spot. "HELP!"

"There's nobody here, shut up!" I snapped frantically. An image popped into my mind. Crevasse country... digging Chimaconda... "Theo, let your Chimaconda out," I said urgently.

"What? Why?" Theo gasped.

"Just do it!" I bellowed into his face.

Stiff with fear, Theo fumbled with his balls and finally let Chima out. It sniffed around on the ground like it had done by the wooden lodge, and started digging into a spot about five metres away.

"What's it doing?" Theo gasped.

"Get over there," I said, grabbing onto his wrist. "It's finding us a cave."

As Chima kicked the overhanging snow away from the entrance of the cave, I kept my gaze directed up the mountain, straining to catch sight of any sign of the murderous wave of snow which would be reaching us any minute now.

Chima was still digging. Hurry up, I prayed silently.

CRACK! A huge pine tree folded to the ground about twenty metres away up the mountain.

"JUMP!" I shouted, ignoring the fact that there was still nothing but snow in the hole.

Theo shrieked as I pulled him forward and landed on top of the digging Chimaconda, making it yelp in pain. The three of us collapsed through the remaining snow roof and landed hard on the rocky floor of the cave.

That had really done in my stitches.

The tiny amount of light we'd had was swallowed a split second later as the roaring river of the avalanche shot over the cave mouth, sealing us in. We lay there in the pitch black silence, the rumbling filling our ears. I thought I could hear Theo crying.

After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only thirty seconds, the avalanche stopped, and the rumbling died down.

Theo had been crying. I listened to his whimpering.

"You okay?" I asked eventually.

He sniffed. "Yeah. You?"

I winced as I turned my neck. "I'm fine."

"Sorry Chima," I heard him mumbling to his pokemon, which was growling softly. I guiltily rolled off its body.

"We need some light," I said, after a long silence.

"I'll get Pajay out," Theo said with a big sniff.

Theo let out his pokemon, and the bright streamers of fire on its wings and head gave us sufficient illumination.

I gasped. This wasn't just a cave. Although the area we'd landed in resembled a small stone room, a cramped corridor led out of it, further into the rock.

"Don't even think about it," Theo sniffed. "Let's just get out of here."

"And bring all that snow down on top of us?" I snapped. The soft roof was precarious enough as it was right now; I wasn't going near it.

"Stop yelling at me!" Theo cried. "I'm scared!"

"I know, me too!" I yelled, but quieter. "God, I want to hit something."

"You can hit Chima. He doesn't mind, his defense is really high."

I sank my fist into Chima's soft side, causing it to grunt but nothing else.

"See," Theo said sulkily. I hit it again, and felt my anger and frustration subsiding.

I guiltily turned on my PST. "Sorry," I said to Chima.

"Why?" it said to me. "That was a nice massage."

I nodded slowly.

"Why do you never believe anything I say?" Theo said.

"It's not you," I said gruffly. "I don't even believe anything I say half the time."

"That's kinda sad," Theo said.

"You just realised?" I laughed bitterly.

We both went silent when we saw a pokemon coming out of the crack in the wall. "Go kitty!" I shouted instinctively, ripping its ball from my bag. Yowl!

"Kitty, use leaf blade!" I ordered. The attacking pokemon was a Sableye. My heart was pounding as its body oscillated and pulsed ethereally. Leaf Blade would be a OHKO if it was a critical. Please be a critical, I begged.

With a yowl, kitty lunged forward, bringing its tail down on the ghostly pokemon.

What happened next made me reel in horror and collapse backwards into Chimaconda.

Kitty's tail sliced the Sableye in its usual attack, then immediately an ominous red luminescence started seeping from its tail, flowing into the Sableye's body and hitting it hard, causing it to howl and wail in pain before coalescing into the shadows, fainted.

No, no, no. Kitty had just used a nuclear type attack, the same two-stage move I'd seen from the Sheebits. I couldn't deal with this. Not kitty. Not my kitty.

"What was that?" Theo shouted.

Hand shaking, I lifted my pokepod and pointed it at kitty. 'Metalynx,' the pokepod said mechanically. 'Grass-steel type.'

I collapsed against Chima again, weak with relief. I didn't know what had just happened, but kitty was still itself. Of course, I thought, hitting myself mentally. I'd panicked over nothing. Those Sheebits had been brown, not green. Though they used a strange move, they were uncorrupted.

"We gotta go in there," I said to Theo.

"No way," he replied.

"Fine, you stay here and keep guard then. Give me your Pajay."

"No!" Theo shouted. "Don't leave me here in the dark!"

I smiled angelically at him.

"Ari, you're so mean," Theo whined, but he got up reluctantly, packing away his Chimaconda and stroking his Pajay comfortingly.

The four of us – me, Theo, Pajay and kitty – pussy-footed down the corridor, with even Theo having to duck in places as we squeezed through the tightest of bends. Pajay didn't enjoy the claustrophobic, cramped space, but unfortunately it had to be out for the light.

"There's voices," Theo whispered back to me from where I had him leading the pack.

"Okay, stop for a second."

We went quiet, and behind the loud and methodical drips of water from the cave roof, I could hear a high-pitched voice... Was that giggling? I went cold. Curie was in there.

We must have been near the underground fuel dump.

I sighed, and shuffled past Pajay to crouch next to Theo. It was time to tell him everything. He was right, I was being a major ass.

"Good time for a story," I said. "You'll never believe what I was doing last night..."

"You mean you weren't in the hospital?" Theo's eyes were wide.

"Keep up, grunt," I said with a grin.

I went over the details of what I'd found in the archives, what I'd seen at the warehouse, the times when Curie had been in my head. I told him everything, leaving out only the bits involving Cameron. I still couldn't bring myself to go into that.

"Woah," was all he could say at the end. "Why didn't you say anything?" He looked really concerned. "No wonder you're drinking all the time..."

I scowled. "That's got nothing to do with it."

"Dad says people who bottle up their emotions have to drink to stop it from killing them."

My scowl deepened. "Your dad doesn't know anything. I don't have any emotions."

"Whatever," Theo said, already losing interest. He was looking behind him down the corridor. "Come on, let's go find them and beat them up."

"Sounds good," I agreed, applying my last Max Elixir to Tracton, just in case.

We rounded the next bend and came to a solid rock wall. So much for that. On the wall was pinned a huge steel sign, with a huge radioactivity wheel emblazoned across it. 'DO NOT BREAK', thick black letters jumped out from under the danger symbol. 'HIGH LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE STORAGE'.

We could hear Curie's voice clearly now. "Some plutonium for you, fast breeder!" they were saying with a happy giggle. This was followed by a roar, presumably from Urayne.

I looked down at kitty and gasped.

I hadn't noticed it on Pajay, who was red and luminous to start with. But a light red glow was building up around kitty from the ambient radiation. Red! Not green!

"Eat up," Curie said fondly from behind the wall. "Someone's here, but they won't be bothering us. Haha!"

Plutonium... Not the uranium used in fuel rods and probably the styluses. Was it possible they produced different effects in pokemon?

I thought of kitty's move, and the Sheebits' move. Plutonium could be the bridging factor here. Exposure to Plutonium must have added a second, nuclear-type stage to an otherwise normal move!

I quickly got out my phone.

"What are you doing?" Theo whispered.

I turned on my data, cursing as I realised how much I was going to have to use. I opened youtube.

"Seriously, tell me," Theo growled.

"I'm looking at Sheebit's moves," I replied. I searched for Sheebit training videos, and was hit with demonstrations of Magnitude, Earthquake, Earth Power, Fissure... By comparing all the moves, I recognised the one I'd seen as Earthquake.

So the destroyer Sheebits had been using Earthquake, followed by a second nuclear stage. I shivered when I realised what that meant.

This move had been specially designed to destroy dual steel types. Pretty much my entire team. The ground-type move first shattered the steel shell of the pokemon, then the radiation could pass through unhindered and attack the body underneath. I thought of the effect it would have on Tracton, or kitty...

"Are you ready to go?" Curie asked sweetly from behind the wall. "Uri, we're under the ice, nobody can get us here. Take your time."

Urayne roared again.

"Let's go," Theo said uneasily. "I think they're going to blow it up. They always blow up the fuel after they're done, right?"

"Huh?" I frowned, creasing my brow.

"Dummy," Theo said. "You literally just told me. Curie says Urayne needs fuel, and all the places that got blown up had fuel in them!"

"Point taken," I said.

We hurriedly swivelled around and made our way back down the tunnel.

The next moment I was screaming as I crashed into something soft and warm in the darkness, Pajay's light not reaching round the bend past which I'd strayed ahead.


	34. Bruno - Larkspur Labs

Spoiler Warning: Couple of small spoilers, similar to what you'd get if you read the archives in the Larkspur sidequest (seeing as this chapter does involve Larkspur Labs :P)

...

"Hey."

"Hey!"

I stopped screaming. Hands were gripping my shoulders, shaking me. Pajay had rounded the corner and bumped gently into my back, its flames sending hot pricks of pain shooting into my shoulder blades.

I stared into Bruno's grimy face.

"Hey Ari, it's me!" he said again, his face creased up with concern.

I recoiled from him in disgust, crashing into Pajay again.

You thought your love life was bad – at least you hadn't been followed across three cities and into a cave by someone you had one conversation with (and if you have, I am seriously sorry. Let us suffer together.)

"...What are you doing?" I finally managed to unlock my throat to hiss.

Bruno stepped back and lifted his hands in surrender. Pajay's flickering fire cast creepy molester shadows across his face. I let rip.

"First you're hovering over me when I wake up in Amatree. Then you turn up in Venesi at some fake ass job."

Theo was trying to push past Pajay. "Ari!" his muffled voice reached me.

"Now you're literally following me through a cave into a nuclear waste dump."

"I – I – I can explain –"

"Don't," I growled, my voice caressing the lower registers of sound. The ensuing silence settled heavily around us. Theo's mouth had flopped open.

Bruno attempted to start several more sentences, choking on each one a word or two in. Eventually, he threw his hands up and they came down against his hips, unnaturally loud in the sudden quiet.

"Fine," he said, looking at me. "You got me. I have been following you. But it's not what you think!" he jumped in quickly as I went to speak. "I can't tell you what's going on right now, but I promise I'm not out to hurt you, or be creepy, or anything like that."

So I hadn't been imagining it. There had been eyes on me all along.

"Could use some practise," I said snarkily.

"I'm really very sorry," Bruno said. "I didn't mean to freak you out."

I felt Theo finally push his way past me, the smell of singed wool wafting up to my nostrils.

I gave Bruno an extra long scowl to cement my point, but I hadn't forgotten everything else that was going on. No point wasting time listening to yet another pack of lies.

"Whatever man. We've gotta get out of here, now. There's trouble in the dump." I pushed past Bruno, starting the long hike back to the entrance.

Bruno sighed. "What's going on? Is Curie in there?"

"What did you say?!" I gasped, stopping short in my tracks.

"Uh... Oh my god." Bruno's head was in his hands. He was sweating, and it wasn't just the hovering Pajay. "Curie... Curie, you know?"

"I know," I snapped. "How do you know?"

"I..." He had a brainwave. "I heard you say it! I figured it out."

"Bull," I yelled at him. "I never named Curie until after we met in Venesi."

"Stop yelling," Theo wailed. "They're going to hear us."

"Oh for fuck's sake," I sniped back. "They know we're here already. Keep up."

I stormed past both of them and almost broke into an uncharacteristic jog making my way back down the corridor. All this lying, this new crap being constantly dumped onto me. I couldn't take the frustration any more. I bumped continuously into the uneven rock walls, knocking everything from my forehead to my will to live.

"Wait, Ari, wait up!" I heard Theo shout. Goddammit! I just couldn't! What had I done to deserve Theo as a friend? I walked faster. I wasn't crying.

"Come on, wait!" Theo called, his voice more distant. I angrily slapped the tears off my face.

I reached the entrance room and felt around. Rock walls. So the snow roof hadn't collapsed yet.

"In," I said to kitty, which had kept up with me. I held out its Master ball and ignored its yowls of protest. I then let out Shalegas. I wouldn't have tried this half an hour ago, but suddenly the urge to vacate the underground was overwhelming. Maybe it was desperation, maybe it was acute radiation poisoning.

"Use Hidden Power, straight up!" I ordered. Shalegas started to spin and the blast of steel-powered energy exploded from the top of its head, cutting a neat hole through what looked like a couple of metres of hard, compacted snow. I breathed a sigh of relief. The trailing red nuclear pulse melted away surrounding ice, widening the hole enough to fit us through.

I grabbed onto the feelers with my hands. "Beam me up, Shalegas," I mumbled.

My head rose up into the snow channel just as I caught sight of Theo, panting and running out of the narrow corridor, trailed by his Pajay. I didn't get any glimpse of the other one. Good.

Shalegas set me down on the snow and I sat there for a few seconds, sinking into the drift, ignoring Theo's shouting from below. I took a deep breath of the cool air. "Go get them," I said. I turned away.

The mountainside looked completely foreign, and I had to blink a few times. It was really like I'd landed on the moon. What had before been a green landscape with trees and animals and shit, was now completely buried under a thick layer of fresh snow, whose surface was as smooth as Cameron's stream of cussing would be if he ever found out I had led Theo here.

There wasn't a feature in sight, not even a tree stump.

Theo was next up to the surface. "Ari, Ari!" he called, running over to me, stumbling as he sank into the top layer of soft snow, which went almost up to his chest. "Jeez, why didn't you wait? I've got something to show you."

"What is it?" I asked disinterestedly.

"Quick, before he notices." Theo peeked behind his shoulder, reached into the inside of his jumper and pulled out some sort of leather-bound badge.

"What is it?" I asked again, squinting to see in the darkness.

"Right, like he gave it to me to look at," Theo clapped back.

I cleared a quick pit in the snow and brought out my phone, unlocking the screen and shining its light onto the badge.

I gasped.

Unmistakable. Raised metal letters curved round to form a word beneath the crest: INTERPOL.

I flipped open the leather binding to see a crude paper ID card. 'Bruno Rodriguez. ID No. 49443. Date Issued: 24/11/2016. Signed:' I couldn't make out the signature.

"Theo?" a voice from the cave entrance.

I quickly snapped both my phone and the badge shut. I stuffed them into the depths of my bag.

"Over here!" Theo shouted. Shalegas zinged in annoyance at having been assumed a fool by the lowly Theo. It set Bruno down next to us. He seemed to be searching for something in his pockets.

"Dammit, I think I dropped something down there," he said, scowling

"What was it?" I asked sweetly.

He turned his face towards me, eyes wide. "Nothing. Not important," he said with an extremely fake smile.

I shrugged. So I'd figured out what he didn't want me to know. Bruno, in Interpol hey? Why the fuck was Interpol interested in me and Theo? Bruno was only three days in and he looked ready to rage quit. Whatever it was must have paid well.

"Well, it's good to be out in the open again!" Bruno exclaimed suddenly, stretching out his fleece-wrapped arms. Any second now he was going to break out in song. I ignored him.

"Come on Theo," I said, grabbing Theo's arm. "We need to get to Snowbank."

"But what about him?" Theo pouted, pointing at Bruno.

"What about him?" I snapped back.

Theo stared pointedly at Bruno. Bruno stared pointedly at me. I let out a colossal sigh. "Fine, tag along. But don't talk to me if you want to keep your face."

If I'd been right about him stalking me for personal interests, he would have been relieved of it already. But this whole Interpol lark, despite being abominably confusing, I could deal with.

I kept Shalegas out, having realised I could send it forward to scout for us from the air.

"Chimney up ahead," it said to me after one recon trip, the PST mechanically relaying its message. Less than two seconds later, Theo had tripped into the electric fence and that was the final straw for his new jumper.

Bruno and I dragged him smoking away from the buried barbs, our hands in our sleeves.

"Dude," Theo yelled excitedly. "Dude."

"Don't sweat it, Tesla," I said.

So, we had somehow managed to make a loop all the way around the mountain, and had ended up on the other side of the waste storage site. I could see the yellow signs poking out of the snow now that I was trying.

"No," Theo said, rolling his eyes. "What I mean is, we can walk right over the fence now, cos of all the new snow, right? Let's go have a look!"

I groaned. Bruno groaned. Theo bounced up and down, grinning.

We stepped carefully over the electric fence and into the soft snow on the other side. I felt like I was going to regret this.

But for once, I was wrong. Nothing exploded, no creepy apparition appeared. Theo ran ahead, whooping, and reached the chimney first. He stuck his head into it, shouting "YO!"

Even from a distance, I could hear the echoes reverberating inside. "Shut up!" I snapped. "Or did you forget Curie is down there?!"

Theo grinned. "Who cares? You heard them in Silverport. They don't want to hurt us when nobody's watching. YEWW!" he yelled into the chimney again.

I was startled into paralysis. Was Theo... trolling Curie? This was amazing. I felt like a proud parent.

"Hey wait, what's this?" Bruno's voice got me moving again. I turned my head to stare witheringly at him. He lifted up a scrappy piece of metal with a sheepish smile.

I trudged over to examine the item, my grudge cast momentarily aside. Bruno was holding the twisted and burnt remains of a sheet metal sign. Thick black letters: 'RKSPU' could be seen on the rusted fragment, distorted by the bending of the metal.

"Meh," I said. "Mean anything to you?"

"No," Bruno said, frowning.

I turned to grab Theo from where he seemed to be climbing into the chimney.

"FUCK!" I yelled, as my foot caught on something hard under the snow and I was punted, face-down, into the drift. I lay there for a second, having lost the will to face the world.

"Ahh!" I heard a strange, extended, hollow screaming. It took me a second to realise that Theo had fallen down the chimney, probably startled by my cursing. I closed my eyes in defeat.

Theo landed with a thud.

"You okay?" I called, my face still planted in the snow.

"I'm fine," he replied. "I'm fine... I'm fine... I'm fine..." His voice echoed from directly underneath me. I sprang up, snow flying in all directions. What the hell?!

"Woah," I heard Theo say. "Woah... Woah..." I got down on my hands and knees and started clearing the ground. At long last my senile old mind thought to bring out Tracton which was now in its element, chugging along shifting layer after layer of snow.

Whap. A soft dollop fell away into the ground. I jumped back.

"Hey, thanks!" Theo called, his voice a little clearer. "I couldn't see anything in here." I stared down into the darkness. I could've sworn he sounded cheerful.

"Aren't ya scared?" I called, unable to keep a mocking edge out of my voice.

"I've got my pokemon," Theo yelled back. "You know Chima, he can even survive your anger management issues."

The little savage.

With Tracton packed away, I leaned gingerly over the hole the snow had fallen through. Brushing the edges clean with my hands, I felt glass, interspersed with long metal rods. A window? More like a greenhouse at this angle...

"Where are you?" I said sourly.

"Over here!" Theo replied, stamping his feet for emphasis, and I turned my head.

I gasped in horror.

"Theo, get out of there now!" I shouted. He was glowing a combination of green and red. This was obviously a radiation hot spot.

"Wait a second," he whinged, hovering over a similarly luminescing table. "What's this?"

"Who cares," I bellowed. "Your dad's gonna kill me. Get out of there."

"Fine!" Theo yelled. "But I'm taking this with me!"

I quickly dumped my bag and grabbed the escape rope within, realising Theo's Pajay wouldn't fit up the chimney if it never ate again.

"Catch," I called, letting the rope uncoil down the murky shaft. Theo gave it a boisterous tug, and Bruno helped me haul him up.

"What'd you get?" I asked, mildly interested. The glow on his arms was still visible, and I kept my distance.

Theo smugly hoisted what seemed to be a mask of sorts. It sported two creepy eye holes and coiled tubes extending from the temples, and looked vaguely familiar.

It took me a few seconds to realise where I'd seen it, and I gasped. This was a badly aged, weather-beaten duplicate of the mask which Curie wore, though it was missing a gas ventilator. Theo turned the cracked plastic contraption in his hands. It had fallen into disrepair, just like the rest of the strange building which seemed to be entirely buried under the snow.

Theo was smirking. "You can give it to your girlfriend."

I lunged forward and clamped my arms down on his neck. "She is not my girlfriend."

"Kids," Bruno said desperately as we wrestled in the snow. "Be careful."

It was only when Theo had rolled right onto the small hole in the roof that we sobered up and called it quits. I hoisted him up by the arm. "Throw it back," I said, pointing to the mask. "It belongs down there."

Theo pouted, but he obeyed. The mask dropped through the hole and onto the floor inside with a hollow thump.

"Too radioactive anyway," Theo said, scowling and retching suddenly. Bruno and I held his arms as he threw up a little.

"We've leaving now," Bruno said firmly. "Your dad will – I mean, it's too dangerous."

The group of us waded clumsily across the dump site to the opposite fence, Theo between us groaning periodically, and stepped out onto the path we'd originally strayed from.

Bruno made sure we took the right turn this time. My GPS had conked out too, but Bruno said he'd made the trip before (which neither of us believed), and led us up a winding stony road that cut between groves of high-latitude scrub. Even the pine trees were thinning out by the time we reached Snowbank Town.

I looked around and blinked. I wasn't sure what I'd been expecting, but this wasn't it.

Before me, lining a sagging depression in the mountainside, sat clusters of rickety brick and weatherboard buildings, illuminated by colour-mismatched, irregularly-spaced rows of electric lights. An air of desolation hung over the whole town.

Nobody had spoken for the last five minutes of the ascent, and it seemed fitting. I didn't know what the others were thinking about, but my mind was hovering on that decaying, irradiated building under the snow, trying to figure out what might have possessed someone to build it atop a nuclear waste dump.

What was up with the Curie mask anyway? Maybe it was Curie's, and they'd ditched it there; the building was probably an access point for the dump. Seemed like a huge joke that a chimney would be the only entrance, but we hadn't seen any more walled-off areas during our illustrious detour.

"I need a drink," Theo said in a sickly voice.

"Yo, that's my line," I sniped, but I was already on the lookout for the pokemon centre. It wasn't difficult to locate; it seemed to be the only place in town featuring a colour other than white, brown, or poverty.

"Come on," I said, and Bruno followed at a comfortable distance behind us. We slipped and slid down the iced-over roads, making about half the trip to town's centre on our hands and knees. I'd forgotten to pack away Shalegas, and it was still hovering up ahead, laughing at us.

"Hah, hah," I grumbled from my position splayed over a fallen log, trying to find some purchase and accomplishing nothing but some horizontal running miles.

Eventually someone had a brainwave; Theo brought out his fleshy Chimaconda and we sat ourselves on top of it, letting it slide down the road on its belly while we steered with large sticks. I lifted my head, pointed to my eyes and pointed at the silenced Shalegas.

The pokemon centre, though brightly lit, was empty with the exception of a nurse on duty and a sole patron in the restaurant area, a strange-looking man with long grey hair and a novelty hat, drinking reticently in the corner.

Theo attempted to shake himself dry while Chimaconda trailed mud and slush across the floor.

I connected to the free wifi (surprisingly fast) and slouched at one of the tables while Bruno got Theo some hot chocolate. I had about a billion notifications on facebook thanks to my recent abandonment of the interwebs, and got through about three of them before running out of steam and staring brainlessly at the screen as my thumb scrolled of its own accord.

'Beam me up,' read the captain on a new meme. 'I come with benefits'. The photo was a UFO hovering over what looked suspiciously like Snowbank Town. I chortled tepidly.

Wait...

I fished around in my bag for my balls; only four were occupied. Great. That wasn't a UFO; that was Shalegas.

I traipsed out of the pokemon centre and sucked it back into its ball from where crowds of onlookers were taking selfies with it. A groan rose up from the masses like a Mexican wave of disappointment.

Theo and Bruno were sitting and drinking in companionable silence when I finally returned to the restaurant. They seemed to have become friends. I scowled.

The man in the dumb Viking hat was casting unreadable glances at us every now and then. I felt like going over and taking the hat off. It was almost as ludicrous as Bamb'o's sunglasses.

"Who's that anyway?" I said quietly to the others.

"I dunno," Theo replied. "I think I've seen him on TV."

Theo reached out and grabbed the still-drying Chima from where it was trying to eat a tablecloth. Viking guy's curiosity finally got the better of him, and he ambled over to us, revealing a voluminous fur coat which scraped against the floor as he walked.

"You kids trainers?" he asked gruffly without preamble.

"Uh... Yeah!" Theo said, his initial bafflement giving way to his usual personable demeanour. "We're here to challenge the gym."

Viking guy's mouth lifted into what some might have interpreted as a smile. "I'm happy to hear that," he said. "You're the first challengers we've had in months."

"Sick," Theo said.

"I'm the gym leader, my name is Vaeryn," he continued. And... that was it. He seemed to have finished. His face settled back into its statue-like resting position and he turned to head back to his table.

"Oh my god," Bruno exclaimed suddenly, his face lighting up. "I've got it."

Theo and I turned to stare at him in consternation. Well hello, you're still here.

"The sign, Ari," Bruno said excitedly, as I hurriedly wrangled to redirect my train of thought. "That sign we found by the building. Larkspur. It said Larkspur."

"What did you say?!" Vaeryn boomed, and Bruno seemed to wilt under the force of the words. Vaeryn had stopped in his tracks and turned back to face us. I stared at him in shock. Nobody moved for several seconds.

"I – ah, I – !" Bruno stuttered, his face turning bright red. "Just something I, uh, overheard once..."

He really was an abysmal liar, not that I knew what was going on either.

"Nobody," Vaeryn thundered, "but nobody, has spoken of that name here in years. And I suggest you do the same, lest you should suddenly..." he lifted his gnarly hand and waved it stiffly, "disappear into the night."

Bruno gulped. "Yes, sir," he squeaked.

I felt the anger rising inside of me again. "Why?" I asked in the ensuing silence, holding my ground against Vaeryn's vaporising stare. I was sick of it, sick of the confusion. If I died doing it, I was going to get to the bottom of this maelstrom of horse shit.

"Why?" Vaeryn said quietly. He laughed humourlessly. "The child asks why. Hah, hah, hah, the child asks why!"

I stared him down, unblinking. I sensed Theo cowering away in sudden fearful awe of me, and the corner of my mouth turned up.

"Very well," Vaeryn said at long last. Colour was returning to his face. "We will break the silence for one night, to inform this child of why."

I triumphantly fist-bumped Theo under the desk, though he didn't seem to know what we were celebrating. Vaeryn unhurriedly retraced his steps and pulled another chair up to our table.

"First I need to ask, was it something you saw? Something you heard?"

We stared at him, not understanding. He glowered. "Why do you bring up Larkspur?"

"Oh!" Bruno exclaimed. "We, uh, we found this, when we were –"

"Let me see," Vaeryn cut in, snatching the piece of scrap from Bruno's hand. He examined it for a long time. Bruno gulped.

"Stay away from that place," Vaeryn said eventually, his voice quiet. "It's electrified for a reason. Don't go back."

"Okay," Bruno squeaked, lifting his hands. Vaeryn dropped the metal scrap onto the floor and mashed it under his foot.

"Professor Rudi Larkspur," he growled, rolling the name around on his lips as if he were savouring each clandestine syllable, "destroyed us. He destroyed this island."

That wasn't what I'd expected to hear. I frowned.

"Do you know why it is that Silverport is so destitute? Why Snowbank is so poor? Why developers won't go near any place in between?"

"Crevasse country...?" I ventured, but my voice trailed off as Vaeryn's gaze hardened.

He laughed bitterly. "That's what we tell the townspeople, to keep them from mutiny. There isn't a single crevasse on the mountain, only small caves. No... That land is so radioactive, you'd be dead in ten years if you lived on it."

Theo shifted uncomfortably, rubbing at his arms as if he could brush away the radiation.

"Larkspur Labs," Vaeryn continued, "was an R&D department of TAPCO. They worked on all the most secret, controversial projects – using radiation to suppress the free will of pokemon, training them to use powerful nuclear moves, even mass cloning..."

I gulped. Why did these projects sound so familiar?

"But the most important one, the one TAPCO pumped their once bottomless reserves into, was a new technology which could take an ounce of uranium fuel and turn it into almost unlimited energy."

"Like a fast breeder reactor?" Bruno should've known better than to keep interrupting. Vaeryn gave him a glare to freeze Hell over.

"Better," Vaeryn snapped. "Unlimited! But Larkspur and his team conducted so many careless experiments, so many tests and trials on the mountain that the ecosystem was damaged beyond repair. To this day, only ice and ghost pokemon can survive there. In 2006, TAPCO was sued for gross negligence and environmental destruction, and forced to pay three billion dollars in damages."

Vaeryn stopped to take a breath, he was puffed from emotion or speaking too fast.

"It all came out after that. Larkspur was forcefully shut down the day the court ruling came. Not long after, there was a horrific accident at the Epsilon Power Plant, and everyone thought it was the end for TAPCO. But the government bought up the three billion in bonds, and there were riots for weeks... They willed people to remember, a bailout now would mean they wouldn't have to pay for remediation later."

Vaeryn laughed bitterly again, the sound grating in his throat. "What a joke. The site was so radioactive they gave up and turned it into a fuel dump."

I'd figured out what my suspicions before had been – these Larkspur projects, they matched exactly the things I'd seen the blue rangers doing. The mind-controlling styluses, the hundreds of nuclear-powered Sheebits... "And Larkspur," I gulped. I didn't want to know the answer to my question. "He's still operating, isn't he? Just underground?"

Again, the answer was astonishingly different to what I'd been expecting to hear.

"Child," Vaeryn thundered. "What's possessed you to suggest such an awful thing? Professor Rudi Larkspur was arrested seven years ago by Interpol, and he's been in maximum security in Goldenrod City ever since."


	35. Snowbank Gym

I stared at Vaeryn.

"No..." he said, his voice modulating back to its steady state. "The scientists were always a wayward bunch, lost without their organisation. I don't imagine they could continue their work without the head."

He examined our blank faces.

"The head scientist," he clarified. "At the time it was Larkspur. The previous head stepped down to get married and have kids, something like that. Waste of a good mind, though she kept working on the side." Vaeryn's voice was bitter. "And before that, a senile old Liberal voter. I don't think any of them are still around."

"You really know a lot about Larkspur Labs," Theo interjected suspiciously, his cheeks rosy from the hot chocolate. I felt like cheering. Cynicism makes the world go round.

Vaeryn smiled without emotion. "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer," was all he said.

There was silence for a while, the guy at the bar cleared his throat loudly, pointing at the clock. It had just gone 11pm.

"History lesson over," Vaeryn said abruptly, standing and tucking in his chair neatly. "I'll be seeing you young'ins tomorrow. Don't let me hear that name again, unless you want to receive a lifetime ban from my gym."

Theo could probably imagine nothing worse, an everlasting barrier to his conquering of the Championship, and made a zipping motion on his lips.

Vaeryn departed promptly without another word, so Theo and I booked rooms and crashed, grabbing an early night after having maintained a joke of a sleep schedule for almost a week.

Bruno pissed off to a proper hotel or the Interpol dungeon; I didn't particularly care. He didn't stay with us in the pokemon centre at any rate, though I was growing used to having him around. I felt he was also relieved at not having to hide.

Kids were loitering in the corridors when I dragged myself up to the accom floor. The last thing I heard before drifting into the sweet embrace of unconsciousness was a giggly discussion on applying the new 'beam me up' meme to various teachers at the local high school.

...

Ding!

I rubbed my eyes.

I reached for my phone, realising I'd left the wifi on. A FB message from Theo. Well, at least the time wasn't too ghastly, it was just before 9am.

I opened the image attachment and groaned.

Theo had taken a photo of me trussed up in the covers, my mouth hanging open and drooling. He had captioned it, 'Beam me up – you'll never have a locked door again'.

'Fuck you', I typed back.

Seen 8.57am.

I checked my balls – all five little LEDs were lit, so my pokemon were in place. I let Shalegas out and took a quick snap of it while it was still half asleep, looking even more tempestuously incensed than normal.

'Beam me up,' I wrote, attaching the picture. 'I'm so sick of these 'beam me up' memes.'

I put away my phone, ready for my friends to start smashing that motherfuckin like button.

Theo was waiting for me downstairs in the restaurant, tucking into a muffin. "Hello," he said nonchalantly, his mouth full. I reached out and grabbed his hair, redistributing the carefully combed red and yellow parts, making him wail.

I hoisted a scone from the breakfast bar. "Ready to head to the gym?" I asked cheerfully. Theo scowled.

"Well now you've ruined my hair, so you'll have to wait for me."

"Nah," I said, munching. "I'm beating you and getting outta here."

Theo waggled his eyebrows. "Too bad, you can't."

It was my turn to scowl. "Wanna bet?"

"You can only go through the gym in pairs, noob."

I stared. "What kind of a rule is that?!"

Theo grinned. "You saw Vaeryn yesterday. Did you think he was gonna be normal? I tried to get in earlier but they wouldn't let me."

I sighed. At least Theo was relatively strong, and cared about not looking like an ass. Who else was I going to pair with anyway; one of the edgelords from the high school? Curie?

"Let's go," I said, ditching the half-eaten scone in my pocket. I wasn't hungry.

Theo trotted after me, trailing crumbs as he tried to stuff the entire breakfast in his mouth at once. Really, I just wanted to get out of here before Bruno woke up. I wanted to make him sweat when he realised we were gone.

The gym itself was draped over the upper lip of the depression, like an insect struggling to climb out of the icy bowl which held the town. The main building was surprisingly small and looked like a ticket booth; I'd been expecting a castle or something to fit the setting.

"Great, you found a friend," the gym guy said jovially to Theo.

"Total bros," I affirmed. Of course the gym guy would be cheerful standing in the slush at 9 in the morning – being one of the three people in town with a job must have had its perks.

"Let me swipe your ID cards," the gym guy continued pompously, bringing out a laser scanner and wiping a continental plate of dust off the plastic shield.

Theo signed the visitor book like the pretentious twat he was.

"Okay, that's all done," the gym guy said. "Now, I'll be your guide for the challenge as well." He smiled sheepishly. "We don't get enough funding to hire separate Acolytes any more."

He handed us two warm fur coats and heavy-duty gloves, which we swapped our ratty jumpers for.

"You look dumb," Theo said to me, swishing his floor length robes, and I snickered unnecessarily as he attempted to walk around and tripped over the hem of the coat.

"Oh dear..." the acolyte said, frowning. "I'm afraid we don't have children's sizes... That means only Ari will be able to do the second trial."

I groaned. I cursed Kellyn's height. But when we finally headed outside to the arena, I realised I had an advantage. Theo flopped clumsily around in the deep drifts, whereas my long legs cleared them easily.

I grinned to myself as I saw trainers in the distance. My legs were going to get me laid today. Laid into the money, that is.

"You'll start the first trial here," our guide said to us, pausing at a small brick podium. "There's three to pass before you can face Vaeryn."

He handed us a small earpiece and microphone each. "Bond, James Bond," I muttered, slipping them on.

The guide laughed. "Nah man, you only have those so I can listen to you. For the first trial, you won't be allowed to give commands to your pokemon."

I stared. Even Theo's mouth had fallen open.

"You will have to navigate this path and defeat the trainer at the end without telling your pokemon what to do. You just have to trust in their abilities. If you do speak to them, you'll be disqualified and have to start from the podium again."

This was going to end in disaster. You couldn't even blame me for thinking it. I let kitty out and watched its slowly oscillating hips while my stomach sank to the deepest level of hell.

Theo got over the shock pretty quickly and pulled out his trusty Chimaconda, bouncing around on its fleshy back and whooping, ready to go. I did not sit on my kitty.

"Get set... Go!" the acolyte called, and Theo was off. He just had to redirect Chima's head for it to proceed in a straight line. I groaned and heaved and tugged and cursed, but kitty didn't move from the starting line. I raised my eyes to the heavens. A miracle, please.

Whap! A snowflake landed in my eye and my cursing started afresh. Soon, a full-on blizzard had risen, and if it wasn't for my fur coat I would have been solidified. Still kitty lazed around, getting slowly buried by the falling snow.

That was the last straw. I wasn't keen on leading with pyrite, but it would have to do. I sucked kitty back into its ball and let the horse out, while I heard shouts from Theo's opponent. Their battle had started.

The long-legged pyrite made it through the snow without problems, plodding steadily down the path. But inexperienced and slow in battle, it was slain with a single hit from my opponent's first pokemon, a Drilgann.

I let out kitty for the ground-type neutraliser. Please, I begged silently, as Drilgann hit first with a Night Slash. Use leaf blade. Smart kitty. Clever kitty.

Incensed, kitty let out a blood-curdling yowl and returned the enemy's attack. It used night slash back. It actually used night slash. I groaned at fifty decibels, collapsing to the ground and letting the blizzard entomb me in my new grave.

I heard Drilgann's fainted cry and the sound of it being returned to its ball. What in the name of...

I raised my head from the tomb. Ahh! A miracle indeed! My eyes threatened to rip themselves from their sockets. First, night slash had been a critical hit. Then, radiation still lingering in kitty's body, the attack had been followed up by a plutonium pulse.

I looked up through the blizzard, the flakes and howling wind stinging my eyes and waxing my eyebrows. Cheers dude, I said, squeezing my eyes shut as the storm pulled tears out of them. I'll take a shot for you tonight, god.

The rest of the battle was easy going. Now that kitty had its killer two-prong attack and the trainer had no steel types, almost everything was a OHKO. Because of its low speed, kitty came close to being knocked out a couple of times, but I had a ballooning stock of hyper potions to cheat with.

I beat Theo out of there. He hadn't used his irradiated Pajay in the battle.

"I had such a big head start," he whined. "How come you always win at everything?"

Not because of talent, that was for sure. I grinned guiltily, like a politician who had risen to power through the use of bribes.

"Well done," the acolyte shouted, puffing as he traipsed through the deep snow towards us. "You ripped that, guys. But it's only going to get harder from here."

We followed him round a corner formed by an outcrop of rock, topped with small, stumpy pine trees. Ahead of me unfolded a macabre scene – a military style obstacle course starring a huge, sloping net of rope.

"Ari, here's where you'll need your gloves."

I was breaking out just looking at it. I took a couple of seconds to react.

"I gotta climb that?" I gasped. Heaven forbid I would have to do some exercise at a gym.

"Blindfolded," the acolyte responded cheerfully. "Being a pokemon trainer is about a lot more than knowing moves and type match-ups. That's what we want to teach you here. The first trial is about trusting your pokemon, the second one about trusting each other. And the third trial, that's where you have to trust yourself."

I started to sweat as he tied a blindfold over my eyes.

"Theo, you'll be guiding Ari through the obstacle course."

My heart sank. The acolyte placed my hands firmly on the starting rung then stepped away. I hoped at least Bamb'o and Auntie would come to my funeral.

"Theo, come stand here. You can walk on this path." I heard a series of loud crunches and whomps as Theo dragged himself through the snow. The blizzard had thankfully been short-lived, so I had a slightly lower chance of being punted to my death now. All that was left to overcome were any jokes Theo decided to play, and my own poor cardiovascular health.

"Remember!" the acolyte trilled, his voice carrying in the cold air, "if Ari falls, you both have to start again!" I let out a relieved breath. Just the cardio then.

"Raise your left hand," Theo said slowly, like he was speaking to a deaf person. I swore I could hear him laughing. I gritted my teeth and raised my left hand, feeling it sweep over another rung.

"Raise your right foot," Theo continued. I snapped.

"Fuck's sake, you can just say, 'climb forward'," I shouted.

"Climb forward then," Theo said sulkily. I rushed forward on the rungs, feeling the wind whistle past me as I climbed higher. This was okay. I was getting into a rhythm.

FWAP! My hand grasped thin air and I lost my balance, yelling as I tumbled forward, my feet scraping uselessly against the rope. I was plummeting in some direction which must have been down, but I couldn't tell. Crunch! I landed in the snow, and suddenly everything went quiet as my body cut through the soft insulating drift.

I lay there for a couple of seconds. All was dark, but only because of the blindfold. "Ari!" I could hear Theo shouting, but it reached me as more of a puny mumble. The acolyte said something I couldn't make out.

Something clamped down on my sides, and I felt myself being hoisted back to the surface. I was placed on hard ground and someone started removing my blindfold.

Light assaulted my eyes. Hello. "You could've told me I got to the top," I said sourly to Theo.

"You weren't listening to me anyway," he replied sullenly.

I rolled my eyes. "Mate," I sniped. "I said you don't have to tell me every stupid little thing. That doesn't mean you can just say nothing."

Theo opened his mouth to retort.

"Kids!" the acolyte said desperately. "Kids, stop fighting. Look at this Terlard."

We both shut up and looked down at the pokemon which had fished me up from the pit. Its two heads examined us in return, mildly entertained.

"Terlard's heads argue sometimes," the acolyte explained. "It's bad for everyone involved. To move the body forward, they have to trust each other and reach a common ground. The same goes for you."

He packed the pokemon away and sat down beside us on the rocky path.

"Theo, Ari's right, you need to remember they're relying on you. Ari, be patient with Theo. You can't do everything yourself in life; you must learn how to trust other people."

I sighed. I looked at Theo and nodded. He nodded back.

"Thanks for looking out for me in the cave," I muttered.

"Thanks for taking care of me at the lab," Theo muttered back.

Refreshed from this repulsive display of feelings, we tackled the obstacle course with renewed vigour. I made it over the rope net safely, mostly because I remembered the route from before I'd fallen, but Theo did help with navigation of the pointy apex.

The narrow wooden walkway was another matter, and I was forced to slow down to a shuffle as Theo yelled, "teeny tiny bit forward!" again and again. I bit my tongue and sucked it up. I did want to see sunlight again sometime in the next decade.

Eventually I stepped off the platform onto solid ground again, and fist-bumped my main homie. We completely destroyed our opponents for this leg; once kitty started growing tired I switched in the overlevelled blades, whose Aqua Tail dealt a serious blow to even resistant types.

The third trial was going to be a doddle after this.

"Congratulations," the acolyte said, satisfied with himself for delivering his little parcel of life advice. "You're ready for the third trial now. But be warned, some people have gone a little mad on this one before... Don't give up, and listen to your instincts."

He gave us a wink. "Now I'll need to take your bags."

Theo and I looked at each other.

"Yeah, you heard right." The acolyte grinned. "This trial's all about listening to your gut – and you can't do that if you're carrying a sack of distractions around. So no pokemon, no bag, just you."

I gulped. But I wasn't going to let Theo be the first to step up. I threw my bag onto the ground.

"Now, you'll each be placed in a wilderness area with one other person. Your job is to find that person. Once you do, you can leave. The only rule is, no yelling, unless you want to startle the wild pokemon and get mauled."

Theo shivered.

"I'll keep an eye on you up here, and you've still got your mikes, so you can opt out any time you want. Just remember, you can't challenge Vaeryn until you both complete this trial."

"Okay," I said.

The acolyte smiled. "Hold on tight."

My feet were swept out from underneath me, I heard the cry of a dragon, and suddenly everything was dark around me and there was a roaring sound in my ears.

...

A blinding flash of white light hit my eyes as I resurfaced, and the roaring stopped abruptly. I landed with a soft plop in a large drift of snow, and Terlard disappeared back underground with a hiss, probably to go take Theo to his arena.

I shook my head clear and looked around me.

I was truly alone.

I could hear the distant tweeting of birds, and the odd rustle in one of the many large pine trees which surrounded me, but other than that the snow-blanketed landscape seemed to absorb all sound, and the earlier storm had died down completely.

I hauled myself onto my feet, and even the sound of crunching snow was unnaturally loud.

Well, there was nothing to it. I pushed between two of the trees, getting bombed with snow in the process, and started to walk.

I wasn't sure how long I walked for. My initial tactic had been to keep going in a straight line until I hit one of the boundaries, then start a search pattern. Time consuming but methodical. Better than taking my chances randomising in the featureless landscape.

But soon I'd been walking for so long, and I could no longer see the circle of pines when I looked back, that I got the feeling something was wrong. Was it possible there wasn't a boundary? I must have been walking away from the town, into the endless wilderness beyond.

I turned back, but not before cutting off at an angle so I wouldn't be uselessly retracing my steps.

The diversion paid off. After heading past tens of identical clusters of trees, feeling like I was doing nothing but going in a circle, I hit another set of footprints, and they weren't mine. The trainer I was finding must have been round here somewhere.

I examined the direction of the prints, and started following them forward. I was going to beat Theo out of here.

The trail ran on for quite some time, but it was definitely erratic and looped back on itself every now and then, as well as featuring some large pits where my companion must have sat down for a rest, bored of wandering around. Sorry to keep you waiting, champ, I thought sarcastically as I breathed on my fingers, trying to pump some life into them so I could operate my earpiece if I needed to be airlifted out and defrosted at any stage.

Some time in – and I really did lose track of time and space, as the monotonous snowscape blurred into a single unvarying scene – the track I was following merged into another, and I took the wider turn without even thinking. I chewed numbly on the scone in my pocket, to give me some illusion of warmth and sustenance.

It was only when I was several hundred metres down that I realised something strange. I wasn't following a single set of footprints. Some of the prints were broken, widened out into larger pits, and others were accompanied by a new print slightly to the left or right.

Perhaps I'd been round this way before and just not noticed. I had no way of knowing. My head was starting to spin; I understood then what the acolyte meant about going crazy in here. But Theo hadn't copped out yet, or I would have been lifted back to the start as well. I was NOT going to be the first to break. I put a resolute scowl on my face and continued down the line, adding a marching quality to my walk for motivation.

I had learned the Soviet national anthem (1977 version) during my soft communism phase, so I started to sing its spirited verses in time to my marching, when I could stop my teeth from chattering at any rate. The fur coat was now doing little more than getting me into a suitably Russian spirit.

When I finally reached the next turn, it took my numbed and freeze-addled mind many seconds to process what lay before me. I stared at it in shock. I couldn't be wrong this time. What was it the acolyte had said? 'Trust yourself'.

In front of me lay the sharp angle I had made when I decided to turn around earlier. It was unmistakable. The second set of footsteps tracked straight into the turn. I reeled. The trainer I was finding was following my tracks, but that didn't make any sense! Why would they do that?

Unless...

Unless they were Theo.

I gasped. We had each been placed in a wilderness arena with one other person. That other person was Theo for me, and me for Theo.

I'd cracked it! I almost whooped in sudden jubilant admiration of my own intellect. Clamping my lips shut, I turned on my heels and practically sprinted back the way I'd come, as much as you can sprint in foot-deep snow, anyway.

Several minutes and the loss of half a lung later, I almost tripped right over Theo, taking a rest break beside the trail.

"Ahh!" he shrieked, leaping backwards and falling into the snow, leaving nothing but his long sleeves visible. "What's going on, Ari? What are you doing here? Isn't this against the rules?" His teeth were chattering as well.

I smiled egotistically. "Nope. We are each other's targets. We've finished the trial."

On cue, the acolyte's Terlard erupted from the ground beside us, having tunnelled its way down. "Come on," I said. Eventually I had to drag Theo from the snow, and he was stiff like a piece of wet clothing in a freezer.

"Congratulations," the acolyte said when we surfaced back by the obstacle course. "You've completed all three trials. You'll be able to face Vaeryn now, but come warm up in the cabin first. We have cookies."

I grabbed my bag like Auntie would've before she started therapy for her arthritis. The journey back to the cabin was fast as Terlard carried us the whole way. I didn't think this was protocol, but Theo's lips were starting to turn blue and the guide had probably noticed.

I started shivering afresh as heated air blasted onto me inside the little ticket booth cabin. I promptly started to sweat inside the fur coat, so I stripped it off and worked on massaging my fingers.

The acolyte fetched us cups of hot chocolate. I requested gluhwein. He told me to piss off.

"I've called Vaeryn; he'll be up in a few minutes," the guide said cheerfully.

"Where are we battling?" Theo asked excitedly, caressing each of his balls in turn, glad to have his trusty partners by his side again. I thought of caressing kitty and snickered.

"Oh, I dunno," the guide said, shrugging. "Last time they did it in the first trial area, but the snow's bad today. I guess you can stand up on the roof." He pointed sheepishly at the ceiling.

So up we traipsed, and sat on the roof's flat edges with our drinks. Soon enough, Vaeryn himself ascended to the stage, looking sombre in his ridiculous hat. His hair seemed to have grown thicker and greyer, but that was probably just reflection from the bright snow. Maybe he's born with it, maybe it's extreme environmental duress.

"Good morning," he said.

I pulled out my phone. Indeed. It had just gone 11am. I felt like we'd been out in the bush for days.

"Hi," Theo said in reply.

"Well done on completing the trials," Vaeryn said gruffly. "You must be one of the youngest pairs we've had through. It takes perseverance, and you don't see much of that in kids these days."

I fist bumped Theo.

"Shall we begin then?" Vaeryn said, the hard edge gone from his eyes, replaced by what looked to me like respect.

"Yeah!" Theo hollered, bending his knees, flexing his arms, and punting a pokeball forward like he was bowling for a decider in the test cricket. "Go, Chima!"

"Go, Shalegas," I said, sending my pokemon out with 100% less unnecessary fanfare.

Vaeryn almost smiled. He produced his first pair, a predictable Anderind and Alpico. These were common ice-type pokemon we'd seen on the mountain. Theo incinerated the faster Alpico with his Chimaconda, whereas Shalegas got a hit of Psychic on Anderind after taking damage.

Vaeryn continued to attack Shalegas over Chima. I scowled. What was he doing? This was counterintuitive; Flamethrower was a bigger pain in his ass than anything S51-A could deal. Maybe he was scheming, but more likely everyone just had a grudge against aliens for some reason.

Perhaps Vaeryn had been the subject of a distasteful beam me up meme.

Either way, his offensive did not go unnoticed by Shalegas, whose nosiness had increased on par with special attack during evolution. "Keep it in," I said under my breath, as I saw its glare deepening. "Rise above it." Where had I heard that before?

Shalegas continued to be battered by Ice Beam after Dragon Claw after Blizzard. Theo cycled through his pokemon fast, but I kept Shalegas out as a HP wall, with Recover to keep it alive against almost all of Vaeryn's team.

Besides that, I didn't feel up to actually using my brain, so thankfully Theo had more than enough zest for the both of us. His pokemon landed strong, type-matched attacks which beat through Fafninter (a hairy dragon pokemon which Vaeryn seemed to have modelled his look on), Glavinug, and Dunseraph.

It was when Vaeryn's final pokemon came into play, a strange-looking Ampharos which had lost its monotonous yellow and become a dragon type, that Shalegas finally snapped.

After taking a direct hit of Thunder, Shalegas let out a threatening roar and dive-bombed forward, attacking Vaeryn directly on the head, grabbing that ludicrous hat with its feelers. "Shalegas, no!" I shouted, as Vaeryn's desperately flailing arms flew to his head. But I could have used slightly more conviction. After all, I did want that hat gone too.

What I saw next more or less burned off my eyelids I'd pulled them so far back. Vaeryn's hat came off in Shalegas's feelers... and so did his hair. The luscious grey locks, the beard, everything.

I gasped so hard I heard my ribs pop when I saw the face which was underneath the disguise.


	36. Vaeryn

Spoiler Warning: spoilers about Larkspur Lab and some of the people involved there (but nothing about the game projects). The whole Vaeryn saga is made up, so don't worry about that :P

...

In front of me stood the man who had posed for a photo with Lucille and the Sheebits.

I hadn't noticed the resemblance under so many layers of facial hair, but it was painfully obvious now.

He'd aged a little, unsurprising as it had been over ten years since Lucille was last seen.

Vaeryn looked embarrassed and his face was flushed red. He'd caught me staring. "Yes, I'm actually bald," he spluttered, his calm and collected facade shaken. "But I didn't think it fit the mood of the gym..."

With a colossus of effort, I tried to rip my eyes away. I failed.

"Come on," Vaeryn said with his first proper smile. Dire times called for dire measures. "You've never seen a bald man before? What about your dads? Your teachers?"

"Ari, what's up?" Theo asked, punching me on the arm.

I shook myself. "Nothing. It's all good."

I tried to focus on the battle, but my mind wasn't there. Neither was Vaeryn's. He knew that I knew something, and he was trying to figure out why I would know. Only Theo bounced around energetically, commanding his Luchabra with a series of lively yells. Ampharos missed with Thunder, sensing its trainer's distraction, and Luchabra took it out with Focus Punch.

"Well done," Vaeryn said distantly, his guard back up, his gaze never leaving me for more than a second or two. "That was a good battle. You have earned the Apex badge."

I felt the need to confront the con artist, but for once I was having the devil's own time coming up with a sassy opening line. I was getting angrier with each passing second.

"VIKTOR!" a voice yelled from behind us. Theo jumped a mile in the air, and all of us turned to face the new arrival... I gasped, and my own mouth fell open. My eyelids were getting a serious lifting workout. Standing at the top of the stairs, hands on his knees and puffing, was Kellyn.

"Haven't seen you in years, how have you been?" Kellyn continued, not seeming to realise we'd just finished a gym battle. I think I'd stopped breathing by that point. I registered that both Vaeryn and Theo had taken their pokemon back already, leaving only Shalegas floating reticently above us.

Vaeryn stood rooted to the spot, his mouth opening and closing like a stranded fish.

"Hey kids," Kellyn said to us, avoiding my eyes. "Someone at the pokemon centre told me you'd be here. Brian, was it? He was on the phone to Cameron..."

Kellyn lost interest but my eyes narrowed in suspicion. So much for straightening out the maelstrom of horse shit. The deeper I delved, the more turbid it got. I wailed inside.

"So Viktor, what are you doing these days? ...Wait." He'd caught sight of the two shiny badges in Vaeryn's hand. "No way man!" Kellyn would've laughed, if he had been the laughing sort.

Vaeryn's eyes drifted shut. He took a very long, controlled breath. Kellyn's face fell as he realised he'd hit a nerve.

"I go by Vaeryn now." The explanation was delivered with the calm assertion we were used to. "And yes, I'm the leader of Snowbank gym. That's what I'm doing these days."

The corner of Kellyn's mouth twitched. His eyes were distant. "Lucille would love that... Rudi, probably not. I heard what happened with him. Good thing you got out." Kellyn pressed on when there was no response. He cast a glance at me, and I pretended to be absorbed in my phone. "I still don't understand why Lucille never brought it up; she was always vocal about that sort of thing."

Vaeryn's face had hardened in stages during Kellyn's speech, and now resembled the chiselled surface of a piece of quartz. He'd probably be an 11 on the Mohr scale.

I'd heard every word Kellyn said, but processed none of them. I took in the names: Rudi, and Lucille, and Viktor, but I didn't manage to tie it all together until hours later. For the time being, I just stared dumbly at my phone, as Kellyn gave up on Vaeryn and turned to talk to Theo. "I brought something for you and Ari: Mega Bracelets. I figured it's about time, seeing as you're almost at the top of the league now."

I lifted my head detachedly to accept the gift. My mind was still loitering back in the folds of the mystery it was failing miserably to unravel.

"Yeah, thanks Kellyn!" Theo shouted, snapping the bracelet onto his twiggy wrist. "You're the best!"

"Now, you'll need specific stones to actually mega evolve your pokemon; you can buy those at the Belbeach department store when they're in stock. Okay, kids. Vaeryn. I'd best be off. Cam's got a lot on his plate at Omicron."

"See ya," Theo said.

Kellyn nodded to Vaeryn, who didn't return the gesture. He also patted me on the back as he passed, though he stopped short of looking at me.

There was a long silence after Kellyn left. Snowfall was picking up again, and I refused to let myself flinch as the cold flakes battered my face. Theo rubbed vigorously at his arms, trying to keep warm. After a few seconds of this stalemate, Vaeryn stiffly thrust the badges towards us as if the metal was red hot.

"See," Theo said, a self-satisfied grin on his face. "I knew it. You worked for him, didn't you? You knew so much about... about his labs."

"Just say it," Vaeryn snapped, and my head shot up in surprise. "What does it matter anymore?"

He turned away to re-compose himself.

I tried to concentrate on the Vaeryn-Viktor conundrum but my mind wasn't having a bar of it. The insolent ass kept shouting at me: Cameron and Bruno are in cahoots! Trust nobody!

"Take these," Vaeryn said suddenly, his voice having regained some semblance of calm. He held out two chunky objects. "In return, you're not to say a word. Forget about me. Forget everything Kellyn said. I ran and hid because I knew trouble was coming, I knew as soon as Rudi went ahead with the stylus. Why Lucille didn't..."

He shook his head firmly. "I've said too much already. Take these, and stay far, far away. You have no need to be involved. I don't want you, or myself, to be hurt."

My mouth had fallen steadily open. I lifted the jaw back into place.

"Electruxolite for Theo," Vaeryn said, handing Theo the small blue stone. "And Ari, one for S51-A." I was given what looked like a piece of trash. I closed my eyes. Theo was going to pay me out later.

Vaeryn watched on as Theo placed his stone in the folds of Ellie's electric fin. It was a neat fit. I sneaked a glance at the still huffy Shalegas and slipped the metal shard into my pocket.

Vaeryn's stare was unwavering. "We'd better go," I muttered to Theo after a few seconds. "Before we get vaporised."

Theo raised his hand in a doubtful wave, eliciting no response from Vaeryn, before I grabbed onto his arm and dragged him down the stairs.

Once we were outside, Shalegas followed after me though it was still sulking, and Theo balled Electruxo for shelter against the fresh blizzard. I was almost glad to run into Bruno at the pokemon centre. A familiar face, and an easier one to grill.

"Did Kellyn find you?" he asked cheerfully, tucking into a hot lunch.

"Yep," I replied shortly. "Mind telling me what's going on with you and Cameron? You do know Cameron's..." I quickly shut up. Again, I'd almost blabbed in front of Theo.

"Cameron's what? Hey! What are you saying about my dad?" Theo yelled defensively, as Bruno tried in vain to get a word in.

"Nothing," I yelled back, completely smothering the last morsel of Bruno's voice. "I didn't say anything."

"He's a good person," Theo wailed. "He doesn't even tell dad jokes." There was a wicked glint in his eye. "And he'd definitely come visit me if I was in hospital."

I gasped. That was the last straw. "You know what," I snapped nastily. "I'm just going to tell you. Your dad is a bigwig terrorist. I saw him with the blue rangers in the copper mine. He even owns the building where they were breeding Sheebits. Maybe he's the one who's been blowing everything up."

"My dad wouldn't do that!" Theo screamed. His eyes were shiny with tears, which made me more angry for some sadistic reason.

"Oh yeah? Then explain any of it. Go on."

Theo broke down into major crying, and I felt like a huge ass. Of course he wouldn't know either. It sucked having a fraud for a father, and I guess I just wanted someone else to feel bad too.

"Sorry," I said, shuffling on my feet.

"Leave me alone," Theo said, still snivelling. I left him to his misery and turned to face Bruno.

"Ari... I dunno... Uh..." He stuttered under the sudden spotlight, lifting up his hands. Finally, he let out a big sigh. "You know, you're both right," he said, his eyes darting skittishly between me and Theo.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I sniped, my heart sinking. I was so tired of this. I should never have left my oblivious existence in Moki Town.

"Oh no. I... You know, I..." Bruno was floundering.

"You can't tell me? Of course you can't," I said bitterly.

"I'm sorry," he said, turning up his hands.

"Can't believe I expected you to say something helpful for once."

I turned on my heels and stormed out of the pokemon centre, leaving the sniffling Theo and crisis-mode Bruno staring after me. I consulted the GPS on my pokepod. I had to head to Tsukinami Town for my last badge, and I was going to do it away from all of these people and the soap opera my life had become.

I grabbed onto Shalegas's feelers, ready to fly. Maybe I'd go get lost in Venesi City for a few days first.


	37. Off to Tsukinami

I dangled from Shalegas's ropey feelers and we glided serenely down the radioactive mountain, over the sagging Silverport Town, across the bay and past the rocky Labyrinth.

I alighted on the suburban fringes of Venesi and let out a big breath of relief into the clean environment. I could already feel the nightmare of Snowbank fading into the past, like the spectre of Communism I'd exploited to get myself through that last trial. Passersby chattered around me. Nobody stared at Shalegas. None of Nowtoch's smog, or Belbeach's pretentious airs. No preachers.

This might actually have been the coveted modern paradise, and of course that also had absolutely nothing to do with Rosalind…

The only thing missing from the picture now was my will to live. I knew what the problem was, to be honest. It had been too long since I'd had something to drink. I'd only been gone a couple of days, so, craving some non-Theo company, I headed to Amy's hotel and emerged with two shrieking children in tow.

Amy was practising a cheerleading routine. "I'm gonna enter the Championship, cos it's my birthday soon! I'll be old enough!" she said happily. She lifted two duct-taped bundles of Chicoatl feathers in the air. "Route 1 represent!" she shouted. "Chyin-munk, Bir-bie, your insults can't hurt me. For-tog, Magikarp, I am gonna reach the top!"

"Nice," I said, giving her an appreciative thumbs up. My main homie had some mad skills going.

"Where are we going?" Henry whined. "Are we there yet?"

"Yep," I said, dragging them into the Tipsy Tavern. It was still early afternoon, so Jack the bartender didn't look twice at the children, though he cast a withering glance towards me.

I ordered kids' parmies for Amy and Henry and a vodka-rich concoction for myself. Jack's mouth was drawn into a thin line. I was feeling better already.

"I had another idea too you know," Amy said with her mouth full. I leaned back against the ripped back of the booth and pretended to blow smoke rings (I'm not actually a smoker, though I make weed jokes sometimes. I'm too lazy to maintain any habits, even bad ones.)

"Watch this," Amy continued. She got up and hoisted her Chicoatl pom-poms in the air. "2 4 6 8, I won't take your troll bait. 3 5 7 9, talk to me another time."

"Brother, that was great," I said heartily. I offered her a taste of my fluorescent orange juice, and she chugged it like a container ship fighting a storm current. My mouth fell open in horror as I grabbed the glass back from her.

"I said a sip," I hissed as Amy started to giggle hysterically. Great. Now I was going to have a rapping, drunk, nine-year-old girl on my hands.

"Come on, hurry up," I said to her, giving Henry a poke as well as he slid pieces of salad around his plate. Amy was going to have to walk it off in the next hour if I wanted to leave Venesi City with my kneecaps intact.

I used the next few minutes to scull a couple more drinks, and when we walked out of the tavern I was jazzed enough to trip over the step and almost crush Amy. I laughed when I realised she was holding me up. Cheerleading probably got you ripped.

"You should get help," Amy said insolently. I mocked her pretentious arm-folding.

"My mum says people who get drunk in the day need help," she continued haughtily.

I snatched one of her Chicoatl pom-poms. "Your mum doesn't know anything."

"She knows the whole periodic table."

"Doesn't count if you don't know anything about life."

"But carbon and nitrogen and oxygen are life."

Fuck, this child was sharp. Before I could fail to clap back with a smart response, my pokepod started to beep: call incoming. I fumbled with my bag, relieved.

Amy reached in and fished the pokepod out for me, pompously showing off her unimpaired hand-eye coordination. "Thanks." I grumbled.

I hit 'accept', third try lucky.

"Ari! Ari, is that you? Sorry to bother you mate; I know I was the one who said you should call if you ever –"

"Hold up, who's this?" I said, scrunching up my face. Did the pokepod have a caller ID? I couldn't remember.

"It is I," the mystery caller said sombrely.

"The Frenchiest fry," I continued in a mumble, erupting into uncontrollable laughter and shielding the phone.

"I'm the disgraced Hokage," the caller continued. "Ninja boss of the seas, remember that shit?"

"Ah!" I said, my face relaxing. "What's up, homie?"

"There's big trouble in Tsukinami Village!" Hokage snapped to attention. "I need your help! You are our last hope."

I groaned so loudly Amy was visibly buffeted by the mega sound waves. No! I had just walked away from the drama! I knew Power Plant Omicron was near Tsukinami. Here I was, having been run through life's grinding mill for 48 hours, totally smashed, accompanied by two small children, and Hokage was probably going to ask me to orchestrate the rescue of his hometown from a nuclear apocalypse.

"What is it?" I wailed.

"Ari, you gotta come quickly. The... the..."

My eyes closed in defeat. Hokage seemed to shake himself. "The royal anniversary celebrations are ruined!"

My eyes flew back open. I almost tripped over, and I wasn't even moving. What the... fuck?

"What the fuck?" I said aloud. Whoops, I hadn't meant for that to leave my head.

"Uh... Mate, Hinata and Kaito's tenth anniversary... You know? There's a big party, but fucking Ronin went on a bender and forgot to bring the cat."

"The... cat?"

And that's the story of how I ended up in Tsukinami Village Square, completely off my face, wobbling on my feet as I sombrely watched my Metalynx being raised on a gold-plated pedestal, slowly rotating to a chorus of 'ooh's and 'ahh's from a crowd of about five hundred people.

Hokage and his four brothers were dressed in smart suits, their unruly hair exposed and combed back. Hokage had a big toothy smile on his face.

I sweated. Kitty's tail twitched periodically as it lay in its relaxed, lounging state. All it needed was one carelessly thrown flower...

"Princess Hinata loves cats," Hokage had explained to me earlier. "She has them all – Persian, Liepard, Purugly. But she hasn't shut up for days about the new species Ernest Bamb'o discovered. She had to have one at the party..."

I had been furiously spraying mint mouth freshener into Amy's mouth. "Wider," I hissed.

"I assigned Ronin to obtain one," Hokage had continued, grumbling. "Stupid move. The football final was last night. Venesi won, so there was a total piss up at the pub... Oh, sorry about the spoilers. Were you watching?"

"Yep," I had lied. "Good game."

"Yeww!" Hokage had shouted. "So, long story short... I need to borrow your Metalynx. I don't know anyone else who has one."

"Um..." I had been herding the protesting children into a lift at their hotel at this point. Henry kept trying to snatch my pokepod from me. "Ari!" Amy whined. "Come back and take us out again. It's SO boring here."

"Fine," I had snapped, diving forward as Henry caught ahold of the strap.

"Thanks mate!" Hokage said, his voice crackling on the line. "No, wait..." I had spluttered as Hokage took my misdirected affirmation and ran.

"We're just a quick surf from Venesi," he said cheerfully. "Head south out of the bay. I can send Ronin to pick you up if you get lost. He's being fucking useless here anyway."

"Aye..." I had lamented, my voice petering out. I lay on the carpet, breathing heavily as Hokage hung up and Henry and Amy started tickling me, laughing hysterically.

So, here I was. With a mighty effort I brought my eyes back into focus. A beautifully arranged bouquet was being placed on the pedestal beside kitty. It flicked its tail and sliced off a handful of roses. My eyes fluttered shut.

"Hello!" an elegant, high-pitched voice cut suddenly through the hubbub. The crowd fell silent. I opened my eyes again. A tall, slender woman wearing an embroidered traditional dress was making her way towards kitty, trailed by a man in a dark dress cinched with a shiny dagger.

I gulped.

They were going to sacrifice my kitty.

"No," I rasped. But the alcohol had dried my throat. I looked around frantically and caught sight of the punch bowls lining a long trestle table nearby.

"Metalynx is truly beautiful," the woman said with a smile, reaching out to stroke kitty under the chin. It purred happily, unaware of its impending doom. The man reached for his dagger...

I broke formation with a screech and lunged towards the punch bowls. Five hundred pairs of eyes turned to stare. I grabbed a bowl, lifting it up to my face, funnelling it down in an effort to quickly lubricate my throat. Hokage's mouth had fallen open.

"Scull! Scull!" a small chant broke out in the back.

"Stop!" I shouted, lowering the bowl. "Don't do it! Kitty, get down here!"

"What are you doing?!" Hokage bellowed.

"Don't sacrifice my kitty!" I yelled. "I can breed you another one real fast if you want! Just let me keep this one!"

"For fuck's sake!" Hokage roared, his eyes turning to the heavens.

The woman smiled, looking like she was trying to suppress a laugh. "Hi, you must be Ari," she said. "I'm Hinata. Nice to meet you. Now, why would I want to slaughter this beautiful creature? Kaito was merely going to cut up some meat for it..."

"Oh, right," I said after a long silence, scratching my head awkwardly. "I knew that." I sank down onto the grass, and everyone quickly lost interest in me as they watched or filmed Kaito butchering a chicken and feeding it to kitty, which ate noisily, smacking its steely lips for the vine. Was that really necessary. I scowled.

"Thanks for coming, everyone!" Hinata called cheerfully. "Enjoy the party!"

The noise level rose up again immediately, and people started flocking to the trestle table to start drinking. At least they had their priorities right here. I quickly scrambled up and stumbled towards the podium, where kitty was being spoiled with attention. It lifted its head and let the sun glint off its metal parts.

"Sorry," I slurred to Hokage, who was lining up, keen for some action too.

He laughed and showed me a toothy grin. "Nah, just a bit of a shock, that's all. Really livened up the cat part. It's always the same."

"Ari!" Hinata called to me, waving above everyone's heads. "Ari, I've got a proposal for you!"

Kaito rolled his eyes. "Stole it from me this year," he joked.

Hinata rushed forward, holding up her long dress. "Hokage tells me you're a strong trainer," she said with a grin. "That cat certainly looks very well cared for. So what do you say, let's get this party going? You can have your gym battle right here, in front of everyone!"

"My... gym battle?" I gasped.

Hinata and Kaito exchanged amused glances. "Yep," Hinata said. "We're the Tsukinami gym leaders. Your eighth badge."

The latest voluminous infusion of alcohol was catching up with me. "Great," I managed to force out of my lips, lifting my hands and forming two sloppy thumbs up. I smiled giddily and felt myself folding to the ground.

...

_Again._

_Amy and Theo are right, you know. You should really do something about your drinking._

I groaned and tossed, though my limbs felt strangely heavy.

 _Good morning... Ari._ Curie seemed to sneer my name. I snapped awake when I realised who it was. I tried to prise open my eyes but the darkness remained.

I was back in that dream state.

 _You won't be able to see anything until I open my eyes,_ Curie said to me. _You're inside my mind now. So, take a look._

Light flooded in and an unfamiliar scene unfolded before me.

It looked like Curie was on an island, full of wild grasses and winding paths. Rather idyllic. But what was that in the distance? ...Cooling towers?

 _Power Plant Omicron..._ Curie said, gloating. _Cameron has moved the fuel for me, to a secluded storage pool. There shouldn't be too much resistance now._

The view before me swivelled. I assumed Curie was turning.

_I'm hiding in the grass, but it was worth it to leave the underground. I'm out of my suit right now; it's been so long since I felt the sun on my own skin._

They turned again and I saw the suit, discarded on the ground. I also saw people in the distance and, despite myself (I was probably still drunk, let's be honest), I cried out a warning to Curie.

 _Don't worry, I'm small. They can't see me. Look, there's Cameron... and Kellyn._ They sneered that name too. _We pay Cameron very well. We know he has to maintain his... illusion for poor Theo and everyone else. We help him with that too. He's been invaluable in designing the stylus's electric circuits, though I thought it was strange he bought up that warehouse... TAPCO never bothered us when we used it all those years; it was abandoned._

So, I was right. I smirked. But I didn't want to think about Theo. Although he would now be feeling my pain, I felt some measure of regret about that.

_Oh? ...Someone's coming. It's always a pleasure, Ari. See you on the other side._

Curie giggled aloud and the sound reached my ears too.

"Ari?"

Curie let go of me fast that time. They seemed to be less temperamental these days. I wiggled my own fingers, and worked on my eyelids.

Now, when I told you in Snowbank that it was hours before I pieced everything together, I wasn't joking. It hit me right then like a flash, before I could even get my eyes open.

I wasn't sure whether Curie had planted the idea or not, but either way I had it all figured out, just like that.

Lucille and Vaeryn had worked together at Larkspur Labs, probably at first on the Sheebit cloning project. Vaeryn had ducked when the stylus research started, but Lucille had stayed.

Finally, I realised what the others had been talking about - Vaeryn not knowing why Lucille hadn't left too, Kellyn not understanding why she never talked though she would have disagreed with what Larkspur was doing...

"Ari, are you awake?"

Hey, that voice sounded familiar. My eyelids sprang open and the corners of my mouth turned up, thoughts of Lucille and Vaeryn and Curie fading away. Rosalind was standing over me.

"Phew," she said with a reciprocating smirk. "You had a lot to drink yesterday. Here I was thinking I was bad."

"How long have I been out?" I asked, relaxing despite a stinging headache.

"Like, all afternoon and most of the night. It's about six in the morning now."

Hinata, who I hadn't noticed, shuffled forward and handed me a Panadol and a cup of water. "Cheers," I said. The hangover actually wasn't that bad, considering. I didn't feel as sick as last time.

"You kept asking for Rosalind in your sleep," she said to me, amused. "We called her and she came pretty fast." She gave me a wink. I scowled but I was blushing.

"What about Maria," I mumbled, quietly enough that I hoped Rosalind wouldn't hear me.

"What about her?" Rosalind said, trying not to laugh. "We're just friends."

I gasped. Wow, my life was worth living again! I tried to forget the fact I was 14 years old. (Just over a month from 15 though).

"Cool," I said.

"Cool," Rosalind said back, still grinning. She perched herself on the edge of my bed.

"You're in the royal palace," Hinata continued. "Kaito insisted we bring you here. Your Metalynx is being looked after, beautiful creature..."

I imagined kitty drinking from its own personal gold-plated water bowl.

Hinata smiled. "He seems to like my Persian. Oh!" she said, quickly perking up. "I almost forgot. Your mother was here earlier, she left this for you." Hinata held out a small cloth bag with a drawstring. "She says not to open it until you get to the Championship. You should call her once in a while, she seemed worried about you."

My jaw had steadily fallen open. What?! I looked at Rosalind, who shrugged helplessly. "I... I don't have a mother," I spluttered.

Hinata frowned. "Oh. I just assumed... Sorry. Never mind." She placed the little bag on the bedside cabinet and turned away.

"Who was it?" I hissed, as Hinata busied herself opening blinds and turning off the overhead light.

"I don't know," Rosalind whispered back, her face lit up by the morning sun. "I just got back half an hour ago." She took in my confused expression. "They lent me a room, I was getting some sleep," she said. Her grin had returned.

"Ohhh, of course," Hinata exclaimed suddenly, her face relaxing into a smile as she turned to face us again. "I forgot, it's your father who's the ranger. Okay! It must have been someone he sent then."

I gasped. A ranger. The blue ranger woman! It must have been her... the same one who had taken care of me in Venesi City.

This was too suss to be a coincidence. Curie had lost control of their rangers both times I'd gotten blackout drunk. Was it even possible our minds were connected like that?!

"Anyway, you should brush up and grab some breakfast," Hinata said cheerfully. "The kitchen's downstairs, Rosalind can show you. Kaito and I will be waiting for your challenge. I can't wait to see that Metalynx in battle."

She took my empty cup and gave me a wink, slipping discreetly out and closing the door.

I looked at Rosalind in the sudden quiet. She looked back at me. "Sup," I said.

"Hungry?" she asked.

"Cookies," I rumbled and we collapsed into laughter, the way a random word can set you off with your bestie and you don't even know why you're laughing.

We raided the palace kitchen, bypassing tables and pantries stacked to the ceiling with vibrant platters of exotic fruits and delicacies, to grill ourselves some cheese toasties. Rosalind's exploded in the microwave and, hooting with laughter, we grabbed cinnamon sticks to peel cheese off the sides. She was an even worse cook than I was.

The sun was well and truly up by the time we headed outside. Juunin and Ronin were sitting on a nearby roof, smoking and bantering.

"Ayyy," Juunin whooped, catching sight of me. "The boss loves a good party, eh?" He giggled, elbowing Ronin, who dropped his cigarette.

Rosalind flipped them off. I was in love.

We turned away, not bothering to give Ronin the time of day as he fell off the shingled roof in his hurry to prevent a bushfire. He landed in the dry grass below with a crunch.

"So what's been happening?" I said easily, as Rosalind and I weaved our way through the winding cobbled streets down to the shoreline.

"Same old," Rosalind said with a yawn. She stopped to buy a jade pendant from a roadside stall. "Struggling along on my shitty actor's pay. You?"

I shrugged. "Not much... Got to Snowbank Town, beat the gym, found out my best friend's dad is a terrorist."

Rosalind looked at me in horror. I grinned lazily. "It's all good. He used to tell everyone I smoked weed anyway."

I bought ice creams for us both once we reached the windy clifftop, and we sat on one of the benches, looking out over the sea.

"You going back to Venesi then?" I asked. No point delaying disappointment when it's coming.

"I gotta," Rosalind said. "The interns have already fucked up my insurance payments once. You should come visit some time."

"Nah, why would I ever wanna see you again," I agreed.

"Solana says thanks, by the way," Rosalind said suddenly. "She's had a lot of success with Tracton; Morgan's new process is working. I think Stan gave him a tank at the mine to use."

"Sick," I said. I meant it. Whatever it was Curie wanted, they would be hard-pressed to get it without a working stylus. They would be easily overwhelmed and probably captured if strong trainers could use their pokemon against Urayne.

Rosalind and I grabbed a selfie above where the big blue sea met the big blue sky, and I was left with a big blue hole in my heart when she flew off on her Coatlith. Even the hundred and fifty likes on my beam me up meme couldn't console me.

Oh, sorry, that's a bit lame for you all, right? Let me rap it instead: Rosalind, Coatlith, I want her as my sidekick. Shalegas, beam me up, you will see that I'm in love.

I was never going to be able to rhyme in a different rhythm again. Whenever I tried, Amy and her Chicoatl pom-poms loomed in my mind's eye, reminding me of choices which were not mine to make.

I sighed and began the long trudge back up to the gleaming royal palace, to collect my kitty (if it would ever move again after having been stuffed and scratched all night by adoring fans) and head off to the eighth and final gym.


	38. Tsukinami Gym

It was a long walk back up the hill. By the time I got to the top, I felt like my knees were going to break apart and roll away like warped pieces of lego. I really did not need this many full restores in my bag.

I sat on the kerb for a while, catching my breath. Beside me, half the nature strip had been burned away, and a lazily coiled hose snaked across the remaining grass. I cast my gaze upwards, but the ninja had gone from the roof.

Great. I'd just realised something.

I had no idea where the fuck the gym was.

Sighing, I hauled myself to my feet, and buzzed myself in at the palace gates. Hinata's chef, the unfortunate one on visitor duty, led me through the labyrinthine halls of the palace to a lusciously vegetated courtyard. Kitty was asleep below an ornamental palm tree, a string of spittle hanging from its mouth.

"Yo, time to go," I said, poking it. Its grassy fur had grown extra long, probably having been watered overnight.

It took me and the chef simultaneously pounding kitty's sides to wake it up, which it did abruptly with a disgruntled hiss, leaping into the air and slicing through the trunk of the palm tree with its tail. I closed my eyes in horror.

"Oh dear," the chef said.

"There goes Hinata's love of Metalynx," I said dryly.

The chef rolled his eyes. "Nah, she won't care about the tree. You should see what the Persian did to our mint... What I meant was, Hinata prides herself on guests never waking up on the wrong side of bed."

I ruffled kitty's fur, making it hiss again, the spittle flying off in three directions.

"This is a good side for kitty," I reassured him.

The chef didn't look convinced, but led us back towards the entrance. "For the beast," he said with a wink, handing me a sack of chicken biscuits. He rummaged around in his pocket again and pulled out the little drawstring bag I'd left on my bedside table.

"Hinata said to make sure you take it," he said, tossing it to me. "Remember – don't open it until you get to the Championship!"

I nodded, stuffing the strange item into the bottom of my bag.

"Oh, and something Rosalind came back to drop off..." He nipped into the kitchen. "I'm guessing you can open this one whenever you want," he said, returning with a paper-wrapped parcel.

My face grinned of its own accord as I accepted the gift. Honestly, Ari, get a fucking grip.

"You know where the gym is?" I asked.

"Just next to the square." He pointed downslope to the right. "There's a street going off the far side."

"Cheers mate," I said. I grabbed the pacing kitty, which proceed to snatch the chicken biscuits from under my arm, salivating on and shredding half my hoodie in the process. I flashed the cook a smile as he stared at the supposedly regal creature the town had been introduced to yesterday.

We dawdled slowly back down the hill, turning off the terrace-lined street about halfway down to get to the square. Cleaners were still combing the trampled lawns, picking up rubbish from yesterday's revelry. I gave them a wide berth lest kitty start ripping into their bin bags and further tarnishing its gleaming reputation.

In this distracted state I almost missed the gym, which I would've been hard-pressed not to mistake for a national park. The entrance was just a clapped-out wrought iron arch set into a low brick wall; densely packed trees spilled their foliage over this boundary.

I grabbed hold of the iron gate and it swung open noiselessly. The reception area was set up in the shade of the trees.

"Welcome to Tsukinami gym," the gym girl (that was a change) said serenely, her mouth turning up into a smile as she caught sight of kitty. "ID card?"

My ID was swiped. "Ah yes, Ari," she said, the cheeky glint in her eye breaking up her zen appearance. "Your Metalynx is a very good dancer." She was trying hard not to laugh.

"Hear that?" I said to kitty, poking it with my foot. It erupted into its oscillating swords dance. The gym girl let out a snort, losing the desperate battle to control herself.

Once she'd finally managed to arrest her convulsing laughter, the girl pulled her jacket – black with white trim, it reminded me of Rosalind – straight again, and handed me a flyer. She stared intently at my right shoulder, trying to avoid looking down at kitty.

"This will tell you more about Tsukinami's history," she managed, her face red, "and how it relates to the puzzles in the gym."

She pointed to a path over which the treetops were all tangled together, forming a sort of leafy tunnel. It angled off into the forest behind her.

"Good luck." She shot me two thumbs up. "Everyone's rooting for you!"

My footsteps crunched on the gravel as I plodded down the path. So, I had become a local celebrity. Theo was going to be jelly.

The flyer was packed with very small text. What was this, a gym challenge for ants? I fed the paper to kitty, which ate up with a smacking of lips.

"Ayy, look who it is!" came a snigger from the top of the trees. I looked up, shielding my eyes. Ronin and Juunin were chilling out on a big bough, playing cards and smoking.

"Sup," I replied coolly. "Whatcha doin' up there?"

Juunin sighed and laid down his hand. He hopped down from the tree. "We gotta battle you. Hokage had, like, a mid-life crisis after you beat him, and made us all look for proper jobs. So yeah, here we are."

Ronin made his way down as well. He was dressed in white, whereas Juunin had his usual black on. I looked between them, an eyebrow raised.

"Oi, get that nasty look off your face," Ronin said, narrowing his eyes. "It's just a costume. Nobody gives a shit about the whole clan thing anymore." The way he said it, I felt like he gave a large shit about the whole clan thing.

"Which is...?" I probed.

"Didn't you read the flyer? You seemed like the scholarly type." The brothers snickered.

"Do it properly, you'll get us fired," Juunin hissed, elbowing Ronin.

Ronin sighed. "Fine. It's because there used to be two clans in Tandor, Tsuki and Nami. You know how it is. Black and white, east and west, dicks and –"

"Properly," Juunin roared.

"Sorry boss," Ronin muttered to me. I let my seven badges catch the sun. "Anyway, they were always fighting and fucking each other up, until some bright spark figured out they were stronger together, in balance."

"So they made peace," Juunin jumped in before his brother could try any more dick jokes. "And they built Tsukinami Village as kind of a capitol for the region. 'Course, parliament is in Nowtoch City these days –"

"Seriously?" Ronin yelled.

"Shouldn't have dropped out of primary school," Juunin sniped, turning away as Ronin walked off the burn. "...But Hinata and Kaito's palace is still here, just like it's always been. I don't think it'd look too good in the city anyway, with all the dust."

"All right," Ronin said sourly. "Let's get on with it."

"Right," Juunin said. "So I'm wearing our Nami uniform, and Ronin is a Tsuki."

"Just a pretend one," Ronin yelled.

"Whatever. So we're battling fire and water today; we have to choose it based on your starter."

I readied blades' ball as Ronin continued to whinge about gross mistreatment.

"Go, Daikatuna!" Juunin called, casting a glare towards his brother. Someone was keen to finish that game of cards.

"Go, Antarki," Ronin grumbled.

I sent out blades and Shalegas. There would be mutiny later if I let the freshly spoiled kitty into the vicinity of a fire-type.

"TUNA!" Juunin yelled, happy to be fighting with his usual partner. "Use Aqua Tail on S51-A!"

"Antarki, Shadow Ball, S51-A," Ronin continued to grouch. "We switch next time."

See what I mean about everyone ganging up on the alien?

Shalegas gave me a sassy glare as it waited for its command. "What?" I said, narrowing my eyes.

Without any warning, one of its feeler arms suddenly shot out and snatched something from my pocket. Ronin laughed. Shalegas was back with its nasty 'tude, then.

"Dark Pulse, Antarki," I snapped to it. "Blades, swords dance!"

Before anyone on the field could even think about moving, a blinding flash of light pierced into my skull and I heard Ronin let out a yell. Stars flashing before my eyes, I staggered backwards.

When the intense radiation had cleared and I could see again, my mouth fell open. Ronin's mouth fell open. Juunin's mouth fell open.

"What the fuck is that?!" all three of us shouted at the same time.

"Lol, jinx," Ronin snickered.

In the middle of the battlefield, towering above the already enormous Daikatuna, making the tiny flickering Antarki look like a blueberry, stood a colossal steel structure, resting on four striped legs, the loose gravel practically giving way to pits underneath its vast weight.

"...Shalegas?!" I gasped.

I quickly turned on the PST.

"Eighth gym. Gotta pick up your game now, buddy," Shalegas drawled. "Didn't even think to get that Mega Stone out, did ya? Check out these motherfuckin guns."

Shalegas loosed a few cannons of Dark Pulse off into the trees, for shits and giggles I assumed. The energy bent the trunks slightly, and those trees were huge. Juunin's cards slid off the big branch he'd been sitting on. He let out a mournful yelp.

Before anybody could even react to its little speech, Shalegas had attacked Antarki and knocked it out cold, its flame going out as it fainted. Blades, spurned into action, loosed swords dance. The foe Daikatuna missed with Aqua Tail, probably unnerved by the extremely large pair of eyes Shalegas now sported.

"Dammit!" Ronin cursed. "Go Lavent!"

"TUNA, Aqua Tail, go again!" Juunin roared.

Shalegas was a monster. There wasn't even any STAB power, and its Dark Pulse took out the enemy Daikatuna in a single shot. I cheered.

Again, before Lavent could loose the lava plume I saw it was preparing, blades hit with a powered up Aqua Jet. Another OHKO. I laughed gleefully. I could even forgive Shalegas's 'tude.

The rest of the battle was an absolute walk in the park, to match the literal walk in the park this gym challenge seemed to have become. Ronin still had a Pajay, and Juunin had a Saidine and a Glavinug. All one-shots from the steel beasts.

I mopped the floor with their faces.

Huffing and puffing, blushing like crazy, Ronin and Juunin dutifully handed me my prize money.

"You're getting good," Ronin muttered. "You should stick around and pirate with us."

"Don't fancy the jail time," I replied with a lazy smile.

While Juunin hurried to sweep up his cards before Shalegas could incinerate them with Laser Pulse (I'd warned them it was a vengeful one), Ronin led me out of the grove to the first puzzle.

I examined the two tables packed with random objects: logs, tanks of water, and steel weights. Behind the tables sat a large, lopsided set of golden scales – think scales of justice for the aesthetic.

"So, what you gotta do for this one," he explained, "is get those scales to balance exactly. And you can only use the shit what's on the table. We gotta watch you and make sure you don't cheat."

"But we also really like chocolate," Juunin said, running up and giving me an exaggerated wink.

"If you look at the dial underneath, it'll tell you if you're close."

It looked like the meter part on a set of kitchen scales. Right now the needle was pointing halfway to the left-most extreme, the direction towards which the scales were weighted.

I sighed. Juunin and Ronin fell back, starting their card game again lounging on the ground. They maintained a lively stream of cussing.

Well, there was really nothing for it. I grabbed the nearest item, a big block of wood, and lifted. Immediately I gasped and almost dropped it onto my feet. That shit must have weighed at least ten kilos. Groaning, I bent down and got my hands around it properly.

Five minutes later, sweating profusely, I'd finally managed to lift the blasted piece of wood onto the right-hand scale. I regretted blowing off Auntie's strength-training classes.

Hands on my knees, I examined the other items. The grass was bending before me I groaned so hard.

No use complaining. I considered getting Shalegas out for help, but that would've been just a little bit obvious... I grabbed the handles on one of the water tanks. Its level was marked in sharpie around the sides.

Heaving, I got it up beside the wood.

Dammit! So close! It had just overshot by the tiniest of margins. I took a break and collapsed onto the grass, where something dug uncomfortably into my thigh. I looked down – Rosalind's paper-wrapped gift was poking out of my pants pocket.

Might as well check it out. I ripped at the brown paper, and started laughing when I saw what it was. Thankfully the brothers had begun betting on their game, their yells growing in ferocity, so they paid me no heed.

Rosalind had left me a flask of cheap vodka.

I took a swig of the alcohol. Nasty. This made me laugh harder. It would've been fine with a mixer, but useless on its own...

I gasped so hard the pressure differential almost sucked Ronin's cards out of his hands. (Just joking, but I've always wanted to use that imagery).

Useless for drinking, maybe. My eyes widened. I sneaked a glance towards Ronin and Juunin. They were absorbed.

I quickly took the lid off the water tank and shook the scales, scooping some of the sloshing liquid out with my hands. I emptied the flask of clear alcohol into the tank, bringing the liquid level back up to the sharpie line.

Ding!

The scales beeped after equalising for a few seconds. I whooped. The density difference had caused the most trivial of shifts in weight, but the overshoot had also been so small I could barely see it on the meter.

Juunin's head snapped up.

"Dammit," he shouted. "Wait one second."

"Go and let them through," Ronin taunted.

"And give you time to calculate my score?!" Juunin roared.

"Fine, how about we go together," Ronin suggested.

"Then the bets are cancelled for this round!" Juunin said decisively.

I cleared my throat. Two heads turned. I smiled: Hello, I'm still here.

"I can just go through myself," I said, pointing at the path out of the clearing.

Juunin sighed and hauled himself to his feet. "We gotta check, or Kaito will roast us." He ambled over, clutching his precious cards tightly. He gave the scales and the water tank a cursory glance.

"All fine," he said, waving me towards the exit. As he did so, I caught sight of his cards and gasped loudly. Juunin had a bomb of fives.

"I knew it!" Ronin bellowed triumphantly, watching me. "I knew he had a bomb!"

"I do not have a bomb!" Juunin screamed. "The bets are off anyway!"

I left them to their conundrum and made my way into the next leafy tunnel. I had kitty back out beside me, where it pounced into and sent flying the piles of leaves which littered the ground beneath those massive trees. Snap! Kitty would clamp its jaws down on an escaped leaf. He chunch thos leafs.

The next ninja I battled wore white – the Tsuki clan. He used electric types, which were never too big of a problem anyway, but even easier now I had my destroyer of a Mega S51-A. Ampharos wasn't even a deal because Shalegas was a special attacker. Voltasu, the pre-evo of Yatagaryu, made an appearance but was likewise taken out in a one-shot.

Shalegas had grown to level 62. It was getting extremely OP, even compared to the rest of my team. This was bad news for the creature's already inflated ego. I could feel those eyes mocking both me and its team-mates.

"What's good, muggles?" I once heard it asking.

I hurriedly switched Shalegas from the front of my team, replacing it with kitty.

"Well done," the Tsuki ninja said to me, looking slightly fearfully in Shalegas's direction. "Now, you will go on to the second puzzle. It's like a maze."

Great. My fave.

The ninja reached into his satchel and handed me a small plastic bag filled with yellow lollies.

"These are spark gummies," he explained. "Volchik love to eat them. The more you have left at the end of the maze, the bigger your advantage will be against the gym leaders."

"Sick," I said. I wasn't giving a single one of these babies away.

"Just one twist," the ninja said with a smile. "You will only have one minute to complete the maze. If you don't finish in that time, my Voltasu will fly in and bring you back to the start."

That didn't sound too bad. I shook the ninja's hand and he sent me off into the labyrinth with a clap of his hands.

I started off at a jog. I didn't know how big the maze was as I couldn't see over the bushy walls, but I felt like my lungs were ready.

After the first turn, I came face to face with a Volchik piping at me from a low branch. It wanted a spark gummi. I ignored the Volchik.

I subsequently hit two dead ends, pushed down my mounting rage, and was finally making some headway when Voltasu's cry sounded and I heard the beating of wings, followed by a clamping sensation on my shoulders.

It was only when I was lifted into the air that I actually reacted though. That was because I could now see the size of the maze. My stomach sank to below the deepest level of hell. The headway I thought I'd made was no more than one tenth of the distance to the end.

My face fell in dismay. How many times was I gonna have to go through this blasted thing?! While remembering the entire route?!

I groaned. I was already burned out from the lifting. Tsukinami Gym, roping me in for a ride. I'd thought this one would be easy.

Two runs later, and I full-on collapsed to the ground, gasping for air. Those fourteen sedentary years were making me pay.

I tripped over at the get-go on my next try, so I sat down intending to wait out the minute. Volchik's insistent piping reached me from round the corner. Auntie would've liked that pokemon. I got up and went to lean on the wall opposite it, reaching out an arm and letting it nibble my finger.

The pack of spark gummies crackled in my pocket. I took them out. They were melting from my body heat.

Fuck this, Shalegas was OP enough to wreck the gym leaders. I took out a gummi and fed it to the Volchik. It gulped down the fizzing lolly and immediately its crying increased five-fold in volume. I looked at it in horror.

The little con artist had trapped me. I had no choice but to feed it another gummi, and the clamorous racket grew so intense I was getting a noise migraine. The small bird's body started to spark.

I watched on with a mixture of horror and fascination as the body started to distend and stretch into some sort of grotesque shape. Oh no wait, it was starting to look familiar.

I gasped. The Volchik was evolving into a Voltasu! I sneaked a glance at my watch. Fifteen seconds to go. I grabbed onto the newly formed Voltasu, hoisted myself up, kneed its side and it lifted off as if we were old chums, carrying me straight as an arrow over the top of the maze. We just skimmed the last row of bushes when time ran out. Made it!

It chucked me onto the ground and started preening its fleshy wings.

"Thanks bro," I said, offering it another gummi. It turned its head away. I guessed it was just a Volchik thing.

The Tsuki ninja landed on his own Voltasu a few seconds later.

"Well done, you figured it out," he said with a smile. "I hope this puzzle has taught you that when you help someone out on your journey, they will often be able to help you in return."

He took my spark gummies for safekeeping.

This time, I was given a proper dispatch into the final grove, and was soon hitting up the final challenge. The trainer, a Nami ninja hoarding poison types, was easy to beat, even though I used kitty instead of Shalegas the Conqueror. The type disadvantage didn't bother us as kitty's Swords Dance was sadly well-practised by now.

"This one's a bit less strenuous than the others," the ninja said to me, leading me forward to the last puzzle. "Physically, at least."

What the fuck did that mean?

Oh no... My kitty was seized from me before I could protest. The Tsuki ninja from before dragged it away hissing and disappeared down a set of stairs I couldn't see past.

I was led to the edge of the pit. My stomach began sinking into the pit. I regretted every single time I'd made a meme about this.

Below me, a train cart parked at the end of a track started trundling forward towards a junction.

Tied on the track beyond the junction was my yowling kitty, preceded by the Voltasu who had flown me through the maze earlier.

On the side track were tied at least ten pokemon of various species – strong pokemon, final evolved forms, which must have taken days of hard grinding to train.

I didn't even wait for instruction. I slammed the control lever forward, switching the points. The train cart took the turn and screeched to a halt just before it hit the first of the trussed up pokemon.

I was sweating and gasping. Why was everybody out to get my poor kitty, seriously. What had kitty ever done to hurt anyone?

The Tsuki ninja went to untie it, and it raked a large gash down his arm, making him flinch and bleed. Well.

"Congratulations," the ninja called to me, clutching at his arm with a pained expression and unleashing my Metalynx, which rushed up to squeeze itself between my legs, hissing.

"You've completed all the puzzles in the gym. You may go through to the temple now," the Nami one finished.

Seeing as kitty was intent on remaining where it was, I sat down on its grassy back and rode it down the final grove.

The path opened out, and I was met with a meticulously painted, fastidiously constructed Japanese temple, surrounded by cherry blossom trees in the height of their spring bloom. Nice! I quickly got out my phone and took a selfie with kitty, whose expression left a lot to be desired.

I then took one by myself so the sour one's face didn't mar the panorama.

I pushed open the door of the temple, kitty in tow, and was hit with some zen music playing from hidden speakers. It was like that time I went to fetch Auntie from yoga, and the class was running late. It felt appropriate to flex my limbs so I reached up to scratch a persistent itch on my back.

"Want some help with that?" kitty asked.

I glanced warily at its claws. "No thanks."

Ahead of me, Hinata and Kaito themselves were sitting in ornately carved chairs, holding fold-out fans for the heat and gossiping over tea about my arrival.

"Hello Ari," Hinata said with a friendly smile. "I'm glad to see you made it, and the kitty too... Oh, he doesn't look happy. Was he put on the train track? Hayato should have known better..." Hinata tutted. Someone was getting fired.

"We love cats now as an atonement for the past," Kaito explained. "Hinata of course actually _love-_ loves cats, but everyone in the village has learned to take care of them, because so many species were driven to extinction by the carelessness of our ancestors."

Hinata stood up and offered me some tea. I declined. It was good weather for an ice cold cider. "They didn't know how important it is to balance depletion and conservation," she said. "The last great Iron Cat, the precursor to Metalynx, was poached in the late 1800s for the steel blade on its tail. They were used to make weapons, in a time when the Tsuki and Nami clans were at war."

"Our gym is all about balance," Kaito continued, as Hinata broke to lubricate her throat with some colonial brew (that hadn't escaped my notice). "You've seen that in many forms already. Fire and water. Strength and strategy. Altruism and self-interest."

I recognised those as my first battle and the first two puzzles.

"What about the last one? The one with the train?" I asked.

Kaito had the decency to look embarrassed. "Oh, we call it gain and sacrifice."

Hinata grinned. "But it's really cos Kaito's doing his psychology PhD and he's having trouble finding volunteers. What most people don't seem to remember is that Voltasu's ability is Volt Absorb – it will ground the tracks it's placed on, so no train can run. But, like you, they don't think about that dry old stuff in the heat of the moment. You acted to save your pokemon."

"It means you have a strong bond," Kaito explained. "But the other one is fine too; means you can think well under pressure," he added hurriedly.

Well. I knew some ethicists who might beg to differ.

"Anyway, I take it Ronin and Juunin gave you the run-down on our history?"

"More or less," I said.

"Did they mention the bright sparks who stopped the war were me and Kaito?" Hinata said with a grin.

"They must've let it slip in their enthusiasm," I fabricated. One sacking was enough for today.

"Well, the war went right up until the 80s, though it turned cold a long time before that. The threat of nuclear arms meant everyone lived in fear. What stopped it was... well, that our parents were expecting us."

"Both couples were split – half from Tsuki, half from Nami," Kaito took over. "It was highly frowned upon at the time. But they managed to convince everyone we were incarnations of the gods of light and dark – Aotius and Mutios. That we were here to bring peace to the region, and halt the steady destruction of the environment."

"Of course, we were slated to marry from the moment we were born," Kaito's voice turned dry. "Good thing I grew up to like her."

"Well," Hinata said boisterously. "It's all about gain and sacrifice, right?"

Kaito gasped and they broke to start wrestling. "Just kidding!" Hinata said, laughing.

"We'd better battle Ari..." Kaito grunted, crushed under his wife's muscled arms.

"Too true," Hinata agreed. "They don't wanna be standing here watching this foreplay. Come on then Ari. Who do you want to battle first? Take your pick."

I examined my choices. Hinata had a very sun-like appearance about her; I assumed she was the proverbial Aotius. That meant fire, and energy, and the intrusive light of day which tended to illuminate all of life's problems. I chose the moon.

Kaito was released from his elbow prison and walked me sheepishly to the arena.

"Let's go," he said. "I hope you didn't choose me because I looked easier. Remember the void of space is a billion times bigger than the sun. What does a bit of fire matter when you have the entire universe on your side?"

He raised his arm grandly and sent out his first pokemon - Umbreon.

"Go, kitty," I shouted, pushing the beast forward. Umbreon was a defensive battler. Best to pick it off with Leech Seed.

"Steel type, huh? Dang..." Kaito muttered to himself. I guessed he'd been about to Toxic my ass.

He was still grinning though. Great. What was coming.

Kitty landed its Leech Seed, and Umbreon hit hard with Dark Pulse. Fantastic, kitty was not a special defender. It yowled and tried to chase the shadows, making itself dizzy, docking over half of its HP. Leech Seed got it back over the line, but - and I really stared in horror at this part - Kaito's Umbreon restored the damage with its Leftovers.

This was a sick joke. "Leaf blade!" I shouted to kitty, not wasting any more time. I was going to have to drain my cheat item reserves to get through this one.

Leaf blade landed and did modest damage, but Umbreon proceeded to heal up with Moonlight. I was ready to rage quit. This was like the eternal battle of two Dittos. Why was this my path?!

"Kitty, swords dance!" I ordered, going down the Venesi road. I had to promptly use a hyper potion after this, and Umbreon was still on full health thanks to its goddamn Leftovers. The next Leaf Blade did significantly more damage, and I got another swords dance in as Umbreon went with Moonlight. Kaito seemed immune to kitty's swords dance. Even in these dire times, I felt the laughter rising up inside.

Next attack was a OHKO, and I quickly switched out for the Vanquisher as Kaito sent in Luchabra. Both this and Arbok were taken out easily by the 4-legged mothership, and before it could call me any condescending names I whipped out blades for the final assault. Vilucard was highly offensive, but its defense stats let blades rip in. Unfortunately, Kaito had taught the beast Giga Drain, and all our hard work was undone as I was forced to return the fainted blades to its ball, cursing.

Nothing for it - this was one for Tracton, who hadn't seen any action in some time. I hoped its tracks didn't need oiling. Using Shift Gear got us over the line for a one-shot, so Kaito couldn't try anything sneaky again.

And, with Vilucard fainted, the void was defeated (lel, if only that applied to my actual life as well), and the Sun came to take his place opposite me. Oh rats. Kitty at the front of the pack, blades fainted.

Thankfully - or not, you decide - I didn't have to worry about it.

Because at that precise moment, the lights in the temple sparked and blew, forcing all three of us to hit the ground. The music cut abruptly as the short hit the speakers as well.

An insistent tremor shook Hinata's teapot from the table, shattering it on the tiled floor.

"Omicron!" Hinata gasped, as a huge rumbling explosion rose up behind the temple, from the direction of the sea.

"This doesn't make any sense!" she continued in a frantic yell as my worst fears of a nuclear apocalypse belatedly came true.

"It's not possible!" Hinata dragged all three of us under the table as the tremors worsened. "TAPCO engineers came and removed all the fuel yesterday!"


	39. Power Plant Omicron Part I

"This shouldn't be possible!" Hinata gasped as we sprinted out of the temple, turning to face the sea.

Through the waving thickets of cherry blossom, a mushroom cloud of debris was rising from a distant island, hazy on the horizon.

"That looks like a nuclear explosion!" Hinata shouted. "But... but the uranium in power plants can't explode! It's not enriched enough!"

"What?" Kaito yelped incredulously.

"No time to explain!" Hinata shouted. "We must evacuate the village, NOW!"

Kaito and I stared at her in shock. So much for calm serenity and the mortal incarnation of Aotius. Hinata was on fire.

"Would you like that written down?!" she shouted at the ninja who were huddled together, transfixed on the plume. "Hit the sirens! Get everyone on the ferries!"

She grabbed onto Kaito's arm and released a Splendifowl from its ball. "And make sure someone calls the rangers!" she added, dragging her husband on board. "Ari, we'd appreciate if you came with."

I stared at Hinata. How had we gone from evacuating the town to...

"If Kaito and I are overwhelmed out there... Let's just say I'd feel better with backup."

"You're... going?" I gasped. "Into the nuclear explosion?!"

Hinata's eyes bored into me. "It's our duty as rulers to protect the islands. When there's trouble, we don't run away and let our pawns do the work. What do you take us for, a decorative monarchy?" I smiled guiltily. "GO!" she broke to yell at the ninja, who leapt into the air.

"Yes, boss," Ronin grunted.

"We'd better be getting overtime for this," Juunin added under his breath.

The ninja quickly dispersed, jumping on a pokemon, bikes, or in Ronin's case, a pair of heelies. He hollered after the others, struggling to keep up.

"Woah!" Kaito yelped suddenly as shadows fell over our faces. I looked up.

"The rangers," Hinata said quietly. "Somebody in town must have called them."

Dozens of Staraptor glided overhead in formation, calling shrilly as they started to drop altitude and make for the ruined power plant.

"No." Kaito shook his head. "It's too fast... There must have been a tip off. It's the only way."

"You mean," Hinata growled, "that someone knew about this? And failed to tell us? I am going to –"

"Okay babe," Kaito said hurriedly, placing a calming hand on Hinata's arm. "Ari, come on, let's go."

Thanks for asking, I would love to help out.

I groaned and hauled myself onto the Splendifowl, which was really not large enough to hold three people. By some bending of the laws of aerodynamics it managed to lift off, and I heard frantic wheezing when Hinata and Kaito started to heal each other's and my pokemon, crushing balls and bags and potions between us in the handkerchief-sized space on its back. I tightly gripped two handfuls of ass fluff.

"Where's your Umbreon?" Hinata snapped.

"I don't know, you had it a second ago."

"There." She pointed towards Kaito's foot, which was precariously propped against the leading edge of a wing. The three of us shuffled awkwardly in a mile-high game of musical chairs, and eventually Kaito could swing his arm round far enough to grip the pokeball.

"Can't this wait for the ground?" he complained.

"Look for yourself."

Kaito and I surveyed the scene on the ground. (Or at least Kaito did – I tried to stop my vision from globetrotting).

Kaito gasped. I struggled to focus my meandering eyes.

I gasped.

We were descending towards the island. Splendifowl struggled against the inviting pull of unconsciousness as Hinata and Kaito hoisted their bags too early and scrambled to the front to disembark.

On the ground, what must have been over thirty rangers were fighting viciously against hoardes of glowing green pokemon. Nuclear types.

"What's going on?" Hinata shouted, rolling off as Splendifowl hit the ground hard.

"Hinata!" one of the rangers shouted in a sort of Cockney accent, sweating and gasping as his pokemon ripped into the feral nuclears. "Your... Your Majesty!" he corrected himself.

"Hinata will do," Hinata snapped. "What's going on?"

"They just appeared," the ranger said desperately, hurriedly applying potions to his Empirilla's oozing wounds. "They just fucking came at us."

Hinata lifted her head. I scrutinised the long grass in turn. We were on the far side of the island from the power plant, the place where Curie had been hiding when they spoke to me.

"We can't get near the power plant," the ranger gasped. "There's too many of them."

Hinata was still staring. She'd gone completely still. The mushroom cloud hung over us like a bad life choice.

"They seem organised," Kaito said in a low, menacing voice. "Look, they're coming towards us in groups."

"That's not it," Hinata snapped, silencing him. "I mean sure, that's a deal, but there's something else."

She pointed towards the dispersing plume of debris. It was suddenly glaringly obvious that the pillar wasn't rising from the power plant.

"What's going on here?" Hinata's voice had dropped too. "I knew it wasn't boiler fuel."

There was silence. The cloud undulated overhead.

"The fuel _was_ moved," I tried eventually. Two pairs of royal eyes turned to face me.

"...What?" Hinata stared me down.

"The blue rangers moved the fuel, so their boss Curie could pick it up easily. I mean, like, are there any storage ponds away from the plant?"

"Blue rangers," Kaito said, ignoring my suggestion. "Kellyn assured us they were confined to the West."

I shrugged. "Surprise."

"We deserved to know," Hinata said sourly, and probably smartly left it at that. She ripped her gaze from the plume. "Come on. We've got to get to the plant. There are fifty workers in there."

Hinata and Kaito got off to a strong start fighting through the grass. They weren't pushovers. I almost thanked Curie for interrupting my gym challenge as I watched Hinata's Flareon incinerate encroaching wilds.

I trailed behind them, intending to branch off at an angle to check out the storage pools. I might've been able to bribe Curie out of any rash decisions by putting myself in the firing line. They seemed to have a morbid fascination with ensuring my safety.

"Get out there kitty," I grumbled, as a trio of Tanscure ambushed me from the overgrown fields. "You too, Shalegas."

One of the Tanscure sported a bright red glow as opposed to the usual green. So, there was plutonium around here too. Hinata was right – something was fishy.

"ARI! Quick, catch it!" a voice suddenly roared from behind me. Jesus, someone was keen. But that didn't sound like Hinata or Kaito...

Crash! There was a loud thump.

"ARI!" whoever it was hollered again.

"Kinda busy here!" I yelled back, my eyes oscillating from left to right as the Tanscure ganged up on Shalegas with Crunch. Honestly, this shit was getting old. "Leaf blade," I ordered kitty. "Psychic!" I said to the Conqueror.

"ARI. CATCH IT." Recognition hit me like shots on an empty stomach – the voice belonged to Bamb'o. Damn. I'd just about forgotten I was meant to be working out here. I sighed. "On the green ones," I added with a monster eye roll.

Bamb'o was in for a big let-down when I filled him in about the plutonium. It wasn't like we were back in Manhattan Project times – might've taken a bit of bureaucracy but he'd be able to irradiate his own red pokemon if he wanted to.

I wore down the red Tanscure with kitty's Leech Seed and lobbed an Ultra Ball at it. Hinata and Kaito had disappeared out of sight and the winds of time had grown stale by the time I was finally done. Bamb'o had better have some benefits ready for me. Perhaps something as outrageous as, for example, a wage.

Bamb'o ran up to me puffing, packing away his HM slave Pajay.

"Wow Ari, you just got a shiny!"

"Okay, cool," I said quickly. "What are you doing here?"

"A SHINY," Bamb'o said, his eyes watering. "Those are so rare. Like, they are so rare, man. I've only ever seen a few in my life. And never a nuclear shiny! Let it out please, I gotta see it again."

I considered Bamb'o with slight amusement. I'd never seen him look so alive. His eye bags were larger than ever, but the eyeballs they contained glistened from enthusiasm and radioactive fallout.

He'd even removed his sunglasses for maximum visibility.

"Don't you know what a shiny is?" Bamb'o continued excitedly as I let out the Tanscure. It did have a great aesthetic, exhibiting three tails, long fangs, and the aura of communism. I pointed my pokepod.

"Tanscure. Dark-Nuclear. Shiny," the pokepod intonated. Well then, maybe he was onto something here. "Enter nickname?" I selected YES.

"Omg let me," Bamb'o yelled, leaping for my pod.

I hurriedly typed in 'Red October'. Phew, just in time! I pressed enter the very second Bamb'o barrelled into me. All those late night group chats under the covers had been worth it.

"Ari got a shiny," Bamb'o continued to chant. I packed away my pokemon, including Red October. Eventually he managed to arrest his embarrassing mirth and replied to my question. I'd sat down in the grass and was halfway through a foil-wrapped sandwich by then.

"I came as quickly as I could," Bamb'o said hurriedly, still puffing. "Kellyn put a call out for trainers and pokemon scientists, he sounded pretty spooked."

I waved vaguely at the swarms of fluorescing nuclear pokemon. "Probably cos of those."

Bamb'o sat down next to me. "There aren't so many over here though."

"Yep," I said, munching. "That would be the fallout."

Bamb'o lifted his gaze in horror and examined the cloud for the first time. Though the debris column had dispersed, its source bunker was now just a stone's throw away. I could see what looked like the products of an air strike poking out of the grass.

Bamb'o reached into his bag and ripped out two gas masks. "Jesus Ari. I hired you as an assistant, not a martyr. Put this on."

He chucked me a mask. I reluctantly gave up the rest of my lunch.

"Kellyn doesn't know you're here," he said, his voice distorted through the mask. "If he did, I'd probably be getting a court summons instead of a phone call."

"Don't worry," I said with a dismissive hand wave. "There's people that are gonna shock him worse out here."

Bamb'o's face creased up. "Like? Theo? He can't be here yet, I called him, he was training in the Maskara Channel. He says thanks for befriending the ninja, by the way. They only took half his money and a water stone."

I smirked. "No, try again. Theo, but stronger."

"Huh, Cameron? What are you talking about? Kellyn said he was beat up in hospital."

"Nah, he's in there." I jerked a thumb towards the power plant. I was pretty certain, at least. "He's one of the... lads."

"The blue rangers?!" Bamb'o practically shrieked.

Before Bamb'o could shit himself, we were both distracted by the pounding of feet. Hinata, stripped down to shorts and some kind of flapping top – I recognised it as the remains of her dress – crested the hill from the power plant, trailed by Kaito whose outfit was in similar disarray.

"Ari!" Hinata shouted. "Help! We were wiped!"

I quickly ripped my strongest pokemon – Shalegas and blades – from my bag, while Bamb'o's hands rose slowly to his face. "My favourite royals," I thought I heard him whisper.

Bamb'o's musings were quickly drowned out by a stampede of nuclear pokemon, braying and snarling and hissing as they flew over the hill at frightening speed. I gulped.

We didn't even manage to put a dent in them. Despite Shalegas's belief in its own holiness and blades' ferocious speed and attack, we were reduced to shreds by sheer outnumbering.

I didn't want to try the other two in battle. The group of us were steadily being pushed backwards, stumbling towards the bunker in a last ditch attempt to avoid immediate death. Pokemon such as Eshouten and Gligar were congealing in the air, making escape by Pajay impossible.

"Get in there!" I shouted. I ripped off my mask; nobody could hear me. "They won't go near the bunker!" I tried again. "Get inside!"

"Ari!" Bamb'o gasped. "No! It's too dangerous!"

"We're all dying anyway," I snapped.

Bamb'o looked at Hinata and Kaito in desperation.

"They're right," Hinata said, her face resolute. "We'll have more of a chance."

Bamb'o was torn, but eventually his gossip rag-fuelled adoration of the royal family won out, and he pointed ferociously at my mask, telling me to put it on.

Tanscure snapping at our heels, we dived into the bunker.

I landed with a plop on something soft. "Ow," Hinata said. "Sorry," I replied.

"What is this place?" Kaito whispered, pulling himself onto hands and knees. He groaned as he retched from the radiation.

"Here, I brought this," Bamb'o said, rummaging around in his bag and extracting four cans of food and, finally, a torch. Heh, I always had Bamb'o pegged as a doomsday prepper.

The sharp beam of light cut glaringly into the shadows. We were in some sort of room, and shattered glass littered the floor. Hinata kept a wary eye on the hole we'd fallen through, but the sounds of pokemon outside were fading.

"What the fuck?" Bamb'o gasped, the torch beam flickering as he swept it over several gaping holes in the ground. Some sort of steel-framed pool was full of eerily glowing water, dripping its contents steadily into the cavernous pits below. Shattered pieces of concrete lay on their floors.

"A fuel storage pool," Hinata gasped. "But... but fuel can't blow up! Not like this!" She paused to retch as well and Kaito grabbed her shoulders to steady her.

"The pokemon are gone, right?" Kaito said. "We have to get out of here. The radiation is too strong."

Bamb'o had gone stock still. My heart sank. I didn't want to follow that torch beam, but my wayward eyes did just that, and what I saw next almost made me spew myself despite the gas mask.

Glowing some mixture of white hot and green, pulsating lumps at the bottoms of those pits had started eating through the exposed concrete. Already, a smouldering depression was forming in each one, the floor giving way beneath oozing rock and steel, melted by whatever those... well, balls of light were.

"No," Kaito said menacingly.

"It can't be," Hinata gasped.

"What's going on?" I asked with a gulp.

"We need to leave, now!" Hinata yelled, rushing back to where we'd fallen. She jumped and caught the ragged edges of the roof, and Kaito gave her a boost back to the surface.

We somehow managed to help each other out of there, despite being weak from exposure. The hardest to extract was probably Bamb'o's bag as it had no hands with which to grab onto us.

"What was it?" I asked again, once we'd collapsed onto the grass. The suspense was killing me.

Hinata stared at me with sunken eyes. "Remember the great Tsuki and Nami war? Disarmament began when the clans made peace, and the cold war ended," she said emotionlessly. "Both sides had built up huge stocks of nuclear weapons by then. A contractor was paid to destroy them. And they assured us they were successful."

"Except that was a lie," Kaito finished. "Because there they were, hidden beneath the power plant's fuel storage pool."

My mouth fell open. Hinata let out a very un-royal screech.

"And they're melting down!" she screamed. "The radioactivity will poison all of East Tandor's water supply! We have to do something!"

"But babe..."

"I know, we can't," Hinata wailed.

Bamb'o's face was twitching. He was struggling. His lax lifestyle was ineffective at desensitising him to the types of shocks which I had lately become used to.

"No more surprises," Bamb'o gasped. "I can't take one more thing."

"Stand aside!" roared a voice from behind us. "Which one of you layabouts has the code for the freezer pump?!"

I swivelled so fast leaves were whipped off the ground. I gasped. Bamb'o began moaning, his face in his hands.

"Nobody?!" Lily Cypress yelled. "Then I guess we'll just have to hope they haven't changed it since 2009!"


	40. Power Plant Omicron Part II

Lily Cypress swept past us like a queen of the cold war, her lab coat flapping open in the wind.  
  
"Here goes nothing!" Cypress shouted, grabbing a mask from Bamb'o and plunging into the plutonium dungeon, leaving him stunned into paralysis.  
  
It was a tense five-minute wait. Nobody spoke. Even Bamb'o couldn't find the reserves to quench his thirst for answers.  
  
We were all so on edge that the whining start-up of a huge motor literally made Hinata scream, "Fuck!" Everyone stared at her in shock.  
  
Lily Cypress emerged from the pit a few seconds later, and surveyed the apoplectic gaggle in front of her. She removed her mask and rolled her eyes.  
  
"What's wrong? Never seen a nuclear scientist before? Come on Ernest, what do you think I was doing before I got the grant – making sandwiches for my husband?"  
  
Bamb'o's mouth flapped up and down.  
  
Cypress smirked. "Though I did that too. And the mowing and the tax returns, lazy bastard."  
  
"But... but the lab!" Bamb'o spluttered. "To the top? In seven years?"  
  
"You're being condescending," Cypress said. "I was there from day one."  
  
I almost laughed as Bamb'o choked on his spit.  
  
"I got that building in the divorce. It was a farmhouse but I am a woman of many talents."  
  
Hinata started as the ground underneath us jolted.  
  
"Don't worry about that," Cypress said with a dismissive wave. "It's freezing the groundwater – makes sure the radioactivity can't escape. Safety feature. That tsunami happened while we were decommissioning."  
  
"Cool..." Kaito said.  
  
"Cool?!" Hinata yelped. "Too soon! It's been five minutes since we found out decomposing nuclear weapons are being stored five miles offshore from our village!"  
  
"Subcritical nuclear masses," Cypress corrected. "Completely safe, like we assured you. There must have been some external disturbance."  
  
"Shut up!" Hinata screamed. Everyone stared at her again. "That is enough!"  
  
Even Cypress lifted her hands in defeat. Hinata was now beyond on fire. Any minute now she was going to crack the barrier to terrestrial nuclear fusion.  
  
"You were involved in this. That makes you an enemy of the state."  
  
Cypress's eyes narrowed. "What would you have preferred, putting it under the hotels in Belbeach? The fault lines in Moki Town? The fucking sea? Besides, you're just a decorative monarch. We took orders from Nowtoch. Republicans for a free Tandor!"  
  
"Fight me!" Hinata thundered.  
  
The two women rushed for each other's throats.  
  
The rest of us watched on in absolute confoundment. Even Kaito seemed to have lost his usual calm.  
  
"Fight, fight, fight," I heard Bamb'o mutter under his breath.  
  
"...Someone call the rangers," Kaito rasped at long last.  
  
Hinata's muscly arms pounded Lily Cypress's body, but Cypress was agile and quick. She got many sneaky right hooks in.  
  
"Watch out!" a voice from the sky screamed.  
  
Everyone's heads swivelled up, even the women's. A flash of bright red tore through the air, and Theo slammed right into the middle of the ring on his Pajay, flinging the battlers apart and setting the grass on fire.  
  
"I came as quickly as I could!" Theo yelped. "Why did you call me, Bamb'o?"  
  
"We'll continue this later," Cypress growled.  
  
"If you can survive an attack from my ninja," Hinata snapped back.  
  
"Don't worry," I whispered to Cypress. "You'll be fine." I imagined Ronin and Juunin trying to navigate Comet Cave.  
  
"We need backup to evacuate the power plant," Bamb'o explained. "There are too many feral nuclear pokemon between here and the building."  
  
"All right!" Theo yelled. "I'm ready!" He whipped out his trusty Chimaconda, incinerating another patch of grass.  
  
"No!" Hinata said, still glaring at Cypress. "There are far too many. On the ground, in the air, in the water. This is a hostage situation. We're just going to have to wait until we can negotiate."  
  
"Right," Cypress sniped back. "That's a great plan, Hinata. Kudos. We'll just walk right past the feral pokemon, waltz in there and offer to chat over coffee."  
  
We had reached an apparent stalemate. Nobody moved.  
  
I noticed Theo's eyes boring into me, and shifted uncomfortably. I suddenly knew what he was thinking, and it made me sweat. Negotiating with the blue rangers? Perhaps there was someone here who could do that without having to wade through the Tanscure minefield.  
  
Why is this my path, I wailed internally. I tried to focus on the fifty lives at stake.  
  
"Knock me out," I said to Hinata.  
  
"Excuse me?!" she gasped.  
  
"Just do it."  
  
Hinata stoutly refused to do it, her strong arms hanging on standby at her sides. Theo sprang forward with a resolute expression on his face.  
  
"Paraboom, use Psyshock!" he shouted, letting out his psychic-type pokemon. Well, at least someone wasn't intent on beating round the bush. The last thing I saw before everything went dark was the creepy grinning maul of the Paraboom with its two rows of perfectly rounded teeth.  
  
...  
  
 _Ari, you're too clever for your own good._ Curie sounded annoyed.  
  
 _It was Theo's idea,_ I reminded them.  
  
 _If you weren't such a cocky piece of work, you would've ignored him._  
  
 _I'm just here to talk_ , I said.  
  
I tried wiggling my limbs, but their paralysis confirmed that I was again in the dream state. Or, rather, Curie's mind.  
  
 _And I'm not just talking about this chat. All of this – the explosions, the pokemon – was supposed to be an accident... but you had to turn up and figure it out._  
  
My limbs moved of their own accord. Curie's eyes opened and I saw that they were in an industrial control room – the heart of Power Plant Omicron. They leaned forward to press a button or two, holding the decaying old handbook from the TAPCO archives, and I felt the sensation of touching the buttons with my own finger.  
  
 _You had to tip Kellyn off. Now the place is swarming with rangers._  
  
They sounded tired. They mustn't have slept much recently, to be confusing facts like that.  
  
 _I didn't call Kellyn,_ I corrected.  
  
 _Sure, Ari. Then who else was it? Nobody else knows so much about me._  
  
Two blue rangers were flanking Curie, one on either side. One I'd seen before, the other I wasn't sure I had. The new one was a tall woman with a ponytail. Her back was turned.  
  
 _We won't look at her,_ Curie smirked. _We have more important things to do. Like talk about a deal._  
  
 _What's up?_ I tried to keep my thoughts under control. It took a lot of energy.  
  
Curie sighed. They dragged their gaze away from the female ranger, looking out of the control room window. I saw the power plant workers crammed together in the shadow of a generator, surrounded by the rest of Curie's team.  
  
 _We're trapped in here. Cameron didn't know about the bombs beneath the storage pool. Urayne's fallout triggered them when we went to pick up the fuel rods, and the explosion destroyed our tunnels._  
  
 _Just fly out on Urayne._  
  
 _You bastard. You're even worse than people think. You can't fool me like that – I've seen how many of Kellyn's people there are out there. Besides, Urayne can't carry all my rangers, and I'm not leaving them here._  
  
 _How many of you?_  
  
 _Three plus seven... no six, you got one of those. Ten, including me. Then there's Cameron, but he can take care of himself._  
  
 _Two groups? Three plus six?_  
  
 _Too many questions. But I have a few bargaining chips on my hands – bring me Kellyn and I will send someone outside to talk. I've had enough of you._  
  
I smirked. I made my mind's voice as savage as I could. _Getting too hard to control your thoughts, huh? You've kind of grown to like me. You're afraid you'll let something slip._  
  
 _Get out._  
  
Suddenly their eyes closed and I felt myself being jerked out of unconsciousness. "Ari!" Hinata shouted, slapping my face. My eyes sprang open and I closed my hands around clumps of grass. I was back.  
  
"God Ari, that was bad," Theo said, his face creased up. "You were all convulsing and everything."  
  
I shrugged. "Just the radiation." None of us believed it.  
  
"So?" Kaito asked. "Theo explained it all to us – what did Curie say?"  
  
"They want to speak to Kellyn."  
  
"That was it?"  
  
"There's nine blue rangers, plus them and Cameron, and Urayne trapped in there."  
  
"Cameron?" Bamb'o, Cypress and Theo shouted in unison. I recoiled as the sound waves pounded my eardrums.  
  
"Dad?" Theo screamed again. "Is he okay?"  
  
"Sweetheart," I sniped. "You still don't get it? He's one of them."  
  
"NO!" Theo shouted. "I don't believe you!"  
  
I exchanged a glance with Cypress. She shrugged and spoke quietly to me. "It's possible. He did some electrical work on the freezer pump back in the day, so he knew about the bunker... but there was always something a bit suss about him."  
  
"What?!" I gasped.  
  
"What's it with you people thinking everyone just has one job for their whole life? Get your ass out of the fifties. Cameron worked with me at the contractors' before he went off to TAPCO or wherever. Don't know, don't care."  
  
"Another enemy of the state!" Hinata said, fire coming out her nostrils. (Well, not really, but we were all starting to look a bit luminous given the surroundings).  
  
"You wanna go?!" Lily Cypress shouted.  
  
Kaito stepped in to separate the two women. "That's enough," he said firmly. "We must go find Kellyn."  
  
"I'll call him," Bamb'o said. "I've got him on speed dial."  
  
I felt myself floating off from my plane of reality. My boss had my father on speed dial, probably for all those years I didn't even know he still existed.  
  
"Kellyn?" Bamb'o said into the phone, as Hinata and Kaito tried to patch each other up. Hinata was looking extremely ill. "We need you up at the power plant. There's a bunch of us round those hills in the middle, we can head up together."  
  
There was a pause. "Curie wants to speak to you about a deal."  
  
Another pause. "Okay."  
  
Bamb'o hung up. "He's on the island, just further south. He's getting beat up with his rangers. Very noble."  
  
In the five minutes it took Kellyn to reach us, Hinata lapsed into an uneasy unconsciousness.  
  
"We need to get her out of here," Kaito said, his eyes wet. "But our Splendifowl is badly injured."  
  
"Theo, take them back to Tsukinami."  
  
"No," Theo said, staring Bamb'o down. "I'm a stronger trainer. I can help out here."  
  
After a few seconds' stalemate, Bamb'o threw up his hands. "Fine. I guess the days of respecting our elders are well and truly over..."  
  
"More like the days of young people being denied any respect," Theo clapped back. I almost burst into applause. I felt like a proud parent.  
  
Bamb'o whipped out his Pajay, helped the royals aboard, and lifted off into the relative calm above the bunker, turning back towards Tsukinami without another word.  
  
"You destroyed him," I said to Theo. We high fived.  
  
The unfortunate Bamb'o had just copped the brunt of our frustration with the whole Cameron and Kellyn shitstorm. It was good to let it out. I could tell Theo felt the same.  
  
But when Kellyn arrived, it was time to stop screwing around.  
  
The wild pokemon cleared aside at the command of Curie's stylus, like a parting of the sea. They closed in again behind us, blocking access to the rest of the rangers.  
  
The door of the power plant slithered open. Five blue rangers emerged in single file, followed by... Theo wailed. Cameron.  
  
"NO!" he shouted. "Dad! Dad, what are you doing?!"  
  
Cameron ignored his son. I suddenly felt so bad, as Theo erupted into hysterics. I couldn't believe I'd actually wanted Theo to go through this. Curie was right. I was a heartless bastard. What was wrong with me?  
  
It was ripping me apart that I could've been this cruel to my only friend.  
  
"Cameron," Kellyn shouted, his teeth mashed together in his righteous fury. All talk of a deal was forgotten. "Cameron, why are you doing this? Have you forgotten everything you stood for?!"  
  
Cameron's face struggled and twisted into a snarl. "You?!" he erupted eventually, losing his fight to keep it bottled up. "YOU have the nerve to say that to ME, when you were the one who gave up on her, who abandoned her child because YOU couldn't handle the pain?!"  
  
Kellyn's mouth fell open. Wait, what was Cameron talking about? I looked between the two of them in consternation.  
  
"I see it every time I look at Ari," Cameron shouted, as the blue rangers rallied around him. Kellyn had his hands on his pokeballs. "I see how your choices destroyed their life. I've never seen such emptiness in the eyes of a child."  
  
Cameron looked awkwardly at me. "Sorry, Ari, no offence."  
  
"It's all good man," I managed, feeling like I was about to wake up from some serpentine dream. Cameron, bigwig terrorist, destroyer of power plants, was suddenly telling me all the things that I never knew I needed to hear?  
  
Maybe what I'd wanted all along was someone to tell me it wasn't my fault that I was screwed up. Maybe I'd just wanted to know I wasn't crazy for hating Kellyn.  
  
"Don't you dare say that about my child!" Kellyn roared. "And how dare you suggest I abandoned them? I did it for their own good! They didn't need to grow up around a grieving father."  
  
"But the grieving father was fine for chief executive of the Tandor ranger network?" Cameron's voice was dripping with sarcasm. I was truly living.  
  
Kellyn lost control of his temper. Cameron had hit a nerve. The nerve recoiled along with Kellyn's throwing hand, and his Empirilla and Gararewl burst out of their balls.  
  
I watched as the two men battled, Cameron unleashing his trusty Yatagaryu. Beyond the initial mirth, I was so confused. Cameron, surrounded by his blue ranger terrorist allies (who were ready to turn on their styluses at the first sign of trouble), fought ferociously, seemingly on my behalf. My father, beacon of justice in the region, was probably grinding for his own honour.  
  
What in the name of god was going on?  
  
"Gararewl, Mud Slap!" Kellyn roared over and over. His sneaky tactic was working. Yatagaryu's accuracy fell further and further, and soon it was having trouble landing any attacks, despite the storm it raised to help.  
  
"Yata, Thunder!" Cameron shouted. "Ari, get back!" He cursed abruptly as the dragon loosed a bolt several metres long of its target.  
  
I dived out of the way, though I could've done with an energising booster shot to extricate me from the trance I'd fallen into.  
  
It was obvious Cameron was in trouble. The blue rangers were starting to shift nervously. As Yatagaryu took another Karate Chop from Empirilla, one of them whipped out his stylus, popping off the shield.  
  
Strong, hot radiation pulsated from the core, quickly swamping the ambient rays coming from the cloud and the power plant. Yata froze up, as did Kellyn's pokemon. The enraged nuclear pokemon were whipped into a frenzy, the rangers fighting them left defenceless.  
  
"Cameron, don't do this," Kellyn growled. "These people are just here to help."  
  
"Please, Kellyn. We're here to talk about a deal for my boss, not to settle our petty differences." The corner of his mouth twitched. I felt like the latter was what he had come out for.  
  
Or maybe I just wanted to believe that, because it felt good to finally have someone batting on my side, even if it was Cameron, terror lord.  
  
"Curie wants you all to back off the island, and they also want the ranger you're holding in Nowtoch. In return, the workers in the plant will be released and nobody will be hurt."  
  
"Deal," Kellyn said immediately, without even thinking.  
  
Cameron seemed a little taken aback. "...Well, that was easy, then."  
  
"One more question," Kellyn growled. "How do we deal with the nuclear pokemon?"  
  
Cameron grinned. "I suppose I can tell you that. You can't. But we can, with the styluses. The pokemon were made with Larkspur's cloning technology, so they're easy to control."  
  
Kellyn lifted his ranger radio. "Pull out. Head back to base," was all he said. "Call a ferry for the workers."  
  
Curie seemed satisfied. The power plant door hissed open again, and the terrified workers were corralled out roughly by the rest of the blue rangers. I noticed the woman with the ponytail wasn't among them. That one must've been particularly valuable to Curie.  
  
The workers were subsequently herded to the southern end of the island by a pack of rabid Tanscure. There was thankfully no resistance.  
  
"Thanks for your co-operation," Cameron said smoothly, with a reserved and emotionless smile.  
  
The blue rangers made to head back into the plant.  
  
RROOOOARR!  
  
All eyes turned to face Theo, who was standing on the edge of the group. He let out a petrified scream. Cameron's mouth fell open despite his efforts, and his controlled facade gave way to panic.  
  
Advancing towards Theo from behind nearby trees were three towering, oozing, nuclear Haagross. The enormous slug-like pokemon bared their fangs, which crackled with a lethal combination of radiation and electricity.  
  
"...CURIE!" Cameron finally pulled himself together to shout. "What are you doing? What's the meaning of this?!"  
  
I exchanged another glance with Lily Cypress. Oh no. I remembered what she'd told me – and by extension, what she'd told Curie.  
  
Cameron had known about the nuclear weapons. He'd moved the fuel rods to the pool, knowing full well that the bombs would detonate when Curie went to collect them.  
  
Curie was testing him. They needed to know how loyal he really was.  
  
The horrifying thing was, I knew in the pit of my stomach who Cameron was going to choose. Besides the bizarre fight which had just taken place, every single one of Cameron's actions suggested a blatant disregard for my and Theo's wellbeing.  
  
I couldn't even remember how many times we'd come close to being murdered by Curie, because of the stylus he'd helped build, the research he'd enabled in Silverport.  
  
"Help!" Theo screamed, as the stylus-controlled Haagross advanced towards him. "Dad! Please! Help me!"  
  
I watched on in horror as Cameron stared unmoving at his stricken child. I couldn't believe how wrong I'd been. All along I'd been so jealous of how much Cameron cared for Theo.  
  
"Ellie, please respond," Theo wept, letting out and trying to hide behind his frozen pokemon, tears streaming down his face.  
  
Hastily (and I cursed myself for taking so long to respond), I reached for Tracton's ball and began to throw it.  
  
"Let it go," a blue ranger said quietly, his hand clamping down on my wrist like an electromagnetic crusher on a scrapyard car. The ball dropped from my deadened hand.  
  
I struggled furiously in the rangers' arms, but he was firmly immobilising me. I spat. I saw Kellyn do the same as he, too, was captured. Lily Cypress didn't even spit.  
  
"NO!" Theo cried, as the Haagross moved to surround him and his Electruxo. Cameron stood staring into the middle distance, his eyes unfocused. It was like he couldn't bring himself to watch.  
  
If the stylus wasn't turned off, right now, Theo was going to die.  
  
"DAD!" Theo wailed one final time, before the Haagross lowered their slimy heads towards him, fangs open, ready to tear him to shreds...  
  
A blinding flash hit the corner of my eye and my head snapped towards it like an overextended rubber band.  
  
One of the rangers was struggling furiously, writhing in agony on the ground, his hands clutched in the middle of his curled body, howling. His stylus lay in glowing smithereens on the ground beside him, blown to pieces.  
  
Cameron lowered what looked like a radio transmitter in his hand.  
  
"I hope you're happy! The lot of you have just collapsed a five-year undercover investigation!" Cameron roared. He reached into his pocket and whipped out a badge. "Cameron Stormbringer!" I gasped. I'd seen that badge before. "INTERPOL!"


	41. Cameron - Power Plant Omicron Part III

Spoilers: Big Suggestive Endgame Spoilers (like they are literally all in here). DO NOT READ if you haven't beaten the game! I've introduced most of the existing endgame ideas here because I have several extra storylines to close in the actual endgame of this fic :P

...

Theo's hand flew to his mouth. He was shaking, clutching onto his released Electruxo, the Haagross retreating from where they'd been about to devour him.

My hand flew to my mouth. STORMBRINGER!

"Hands in the air!" he shouted to the blue rangers holding me and Kellyn, pointing a gun in their faces and healing his mighty Yatagaryu with his free hand. I felt the constricting grip around my wrists loosen.

Kellyn rushed to me, grabbing me in a big bear hug. I didn't even have the gumption to protest.

"Get over here, NOW!" Cameron thundered as big drops of rain began to smash into the landscape. "Or Yata will fry you with Thunder, just like the electric circuit in that stylus!"

The three rangers moved slowly towards Cameron, their hands up beside their heads, and Cameron indicated the ground. They obediently lay down in a row like sardines. The four rangers behind him turned and fled back into the plant while he was distracted.

"Dammit! Bruno, get out here!" Cameron bellowed. I gasped so hard the big Haagross were practically sucked towards me by the vacuum. "Game's up. I told you to keep them away, but seeing as you couldn't even manage that, you'll just have to help me sort out this sack of SHIT."

I had never heard such ferocious words being vomited from Cameron's mouth. His face was as red as his hair. He was really angry.

Bruno emerged from behind the big building from where he'd been watching, and I gasped again. He was being weighed down by at least ten sets of handcuffs, strapped to a belt around his waist. He panted as he walked.

"Hurry up!" Cameron roared. "Get those on them!"

My mouth was refusing to close. I stared at Bruno like a beached whale, gasping for air. He'd joined Interpol, the day I'd seen Cameron in the Baykal copper mine...

"Yes Ari," Cameron snapped, catching me staring. "Stormbringer and Bruno. It was me who brought you and Tiko up from the Anthell."

He was breathing heavily. I fancied I could see some of the rain being vaporised as it passed his nostrils.

"The rangers put me in a coma and took me back to the island. They attempted to salvage the situation because," he snarled this part, his face turning puce, "they believed I was on their side, having to hide myself from you, thanks to five years of dehumanising work. Do you know what it takes out of you? You can't possibly imagine how hard it's been, living an entire pack of lies for so many years."

I had already gasped so many times my lungs were full to the brim. I let them down slowly. Nobody moved, with the exception of Bruno, who was still slapping cuffs on the rangers.

"I hired Bruno in Amatree to make sure you stayed safe," he said, slightly less furiously. It was my turn to glare at Cameron. Bullshit. More like, hired Bruno to make sure we never got in the way. Good thing I hated Bruno from the start and would never have listened to him.

"Dad..." Theo mumbled, holding tightly onto his pokemon, his usual vigorous zest for life shot by his near-death experience. "Dad... are you really in Interpol?"

Keep up, grunt, I yelled cruelly in my head.

"Theo, I'm sorry I couldn't tell you sooner. And I'm sorry you had to go through what you just did. But I had to keep it a secret, for the sake of the mission."

"Okay..." Theo sniffed. "Cool." He seemed to be calming down. He wasn't even mad. I would've pummelled Kellyn if I found out he'd been lying to me pretty much my whole life. And about his identity no less. Hardly on the same level as pretending the tooth fairy existed.

Bruno finished up and Cameron started herding the rangers onto the back of his enormous Yatagaryu, tying them to its body with rope threaded through their cuffs. The one with the shattered hands was helped on board too, and tied by his waist.

"We'll take them to Nowtoch," Cameron said quietly to Bruno, the conversation with his son bringing him back to earth. So he had cared after all. I attempted to feel something, anything – relief, remorse, envy – but my heart might as well have been made of the very steel which adorned my pack of beasts. "Put them with the other one. They'll be cured too after a week."

"We haven't got them all," Bruno said, frowning as he helped with the ropes.

"Don't matter now," Cameron said. "Maybe they can help us when they wake up. Every little bit counts." He turned to us, waving Theo over and putting his arms around him.

"I put you in danger Theo, and I'm sorry. But to hide you from Curie meant to leave you behind... so I tried to keep living a normal life on the surface. I didn't want..." Cameron's voice caught. Theo stared at him in shock. "I didn't want you to grow up without a father. And Curie seemed to understand that, so they helped me keep up the secret for you. But maybe lying made it worse. I don't know."

Kellyn looked suitably attacked. I smirked.

"Dad, I get it, you're fine," Theo said bravely. "You had secret agent stuff to do, right?" He wiped at his eyes. Cameron helped. I averted my gaze.

"Yes. Interpol has known about the blue rangers for years," Cameron said to us with a big sigh, releasing his son. "They've been underground this whole time, digging their tunnels, working on the old Larkspur projects. I bought the TAPCO warehouse so I could put CCTV in." He spat.

"You knew about – You called in the tip –" Kellyn began, ashen-faced. But Cameron silenced him.

"And the only reason I asked for this job," he said severely, his face reddening again so that even Bruno recoiled, "that I dropped everything, begged for this merciless job and quit the nuclear disarmament division, was because of Lucille. I met her in the Epsilon mine, the day of the disaster."

I gasped. Auntie only ever told me about Kellyn's heroics during this event. Did I want to hear the rest of it?

"I was out contracting, we got talking, she told me about her child, and joked about troubles at work... And less than an hour later, she was dead. My gut told me that something was wrong, something didn't add up. I never gave up on that feeling."

Kellyn looked at the ground. I was dealing okay so far. Maybe because my brain had reached saturation, like a control valve furiously trying to cut a steadily increasing flow rate of bilge. I carefully controlled my face so it didn't show any sign of perturbation.

"And when I heard about the blue rangers, I knew we had it. Larkspur. Rangers and scientists. The people who disappeared after Epsilon. It all fit together: Lucille in the mine, her colleagues shutting down 092 in the bunker. The emergency response team. All the people you passed off as lost and forgot about." He looked bitterly at Kellyn.

I was finally starting to react. Unfortunately, the emotion which was rising inside of me was rage. I struggled free from Kellyn's clutches.

"My mother is alive?!" was the only thing I could think to yell. "You're saying she's a blue ranger?!" Kellyn looked pained, like I was stabbing him personally.

"I don't know that, Ari. I'm so sorry. All these years, I found out so much, but that was the only thing I couldn't ascertain. I never found her. I thought I was close... But then their leader was ready, and that shook everything up. I had to put the search aside when the attack came to the surface. Shit suddenly got real, as you might say."

"What the fuck does that mean? Their leader was 'ready'?!" I shouted. "Why would they not be ready in the first place?"

Cameron shrugged helplessly, letting go of Theo and pulling himself up onto his pokemon. He looked around nervously. I realised Curie was still in there, unrestrained. We'd been talking for too long.

"I don't know. The ranger in Nowtoch doesn't remember anything. Though Theo told me about those pieces of paper you found, with the photographs..." Yes, I remembered. Kitty's balls. "Maybe Curie was growing in the tank, like Urayne?"

"No, it's not possible," Kellyn said, piping up again. I looked back at him in surprise, the wind falling with a fart noise out of my sails. Cameron, who'd been about to take off, stopped too. He wasn't happy, but he let Kellyn speak.

"I found everything," Kellyn said quietly. "I never went on to the fuel dump after Silverport. I stayed at the archives, going through whatever was left..." He shook his head and looked down at his hands. I noticed the old scars. "Lucille's projects, the ones she never talked about – the details were all there. Her team created Urayne as an infinite power source. When it was ready, they put its tank into stasis mode. That preserves something in its original form indefinitely... change isn't possible."

I stared at Kellyn in shock. He had given up his beloved job of protecting the Snowbank fuel dump with his rangers, to save records and information about Lucille?

I think Cameron noticed it too. His expression changed markedly. He shook his head slowly. "Physically, yes. But the mind? Maybe the mind has the potential to develop."

Nobody knew what to make of that. Cameron said something to Yatagaryu, while my shivers rose to a new level in the intense rainstorm. Theo was herded over to us by Bruno.

"Look after him, okay?" he said to me, shuffling. "Look, Ari, I really am sorry I could never tell you. I think you knew something was up though, my lying was always so bad..."

I grimaced. Bruno was harmless enough after all. "Goodbye, Bruno," I said tiredly.

Yatagaryu let out a screech, preparing to lift off for Nowtoch.

A blood-curdling scream cut through the air from the other side of it, from the entrance of the power plant. "Stop. Right. There," a deep voice boomed. "Cameron Stormbringer, you move anywhere, and this man dies."

I gasped. Theo gasped. Kellyn gasped and raised his hands to his mouth. Cameron tugged hard on his Yatagaryu's head and it fell back hard to the ground.

Standing there in the rain, having just emerged from the plant, were two of the rangers who had escaped earlier. Between them, trussed up and fielding a knife against his wiry neck, was Vaeryn.

"Please!" Vaeryn shouted, his eyes bloodshot and desperate. "Cedric! Kenny!" He seemed to be calling to two of the rangers on Yatagaryu's back. "It's me, Viktor! Tell them to let me go! It's ME!" he screamed.

I was already cold enough from the rain, but that didn't seem to be a barrier to how low my blasted body was willing and able to go. My veins seemed to turn to ice.

"Let them all go," the ranger on the left said calmly. "Let them all go, and nobody gets hurt."

"You don't mean that, do you?" Cameron said quietly.

"You're smart enough to know what I mean, Stormbringer," the man said.

Cameron nodded. They didn't just want their rangers back. He would be punished as well.

A stalemate had been reached. Cameron stared at the rangers, unsure of where to go next. They stood, unmoving, as Vaeryn thrashed between them.

The initial shock was clearing. Random scraps of thought, the chaos which swirled in my head as I'd watched all the day's action, started to fall into place.

I thought back on everything I'd experienced up to this point. What Tiko had said to me – the promise I'd made to him. How I'd beaten through eight gyms and many trials, not just the ones in the Snowbank Gym. How I'd really found someone I wanted to live for and loved a lot. I knew for Theo, that person was his dad. And suddenly, I wasn't even jealous any more.

So my family hadn't given me the best start in life, but I was here now, and I'd learned that no matter what happens, it's never impossible for someone to change.

I knew what I had to do.

I stepped forward.

"How about a trade?" I said to the rangers, trying to keep the wavering out of my voice.

"Ari? NO!" Kellyn shouted, but I ignored him. I walked forward.

"You can have me, and in return let all of these people go. I know there are more of you in there. You don't need these incompetents." I waved at the rangers on the back of Yatagaryu. "And Cameron, he'll be useless to you. You know how well he lies now. He won't tell you anything, and even if he did, you wouldn't know whether to believe him anyway."

I stopped to breathe, gasping.

Curie was deliberating (for I knew it was Curie who controlled these rangers).

After a long period of silence, during which I steadily felt my skin wield into semi-permanent sheets of goose pimples, the rangers let Vaeryn go. They grabbed onto my arms.

"Thank you," Vaeryn whispered to me as he went past. I cast a withering glare at him. He was a coward. I hadn't done it for him.

"Ari!" Theo screamed. "Please don't go!"

Kellyn had an inexplicable expression on his face, but suddenly I thought I knew what it was. I'd just never seen it before on him. It was pride.

I love you Ari, I saw him mouth. So he hadn't worked up the balls to say it out loud yet, but that was okay.

"No!" I heard Theo's last shout as I was dragged into the power plant and a sack was placed over my head. The door slammed shut behind me.


	42. Power Plant Zeta Part I

Spoilers: Endgame spoilers still going (and will be in the next chapter as well)

...

_That was a brave thing you did._

_Was it worth it, to hear those words from Kellyn? To know that Theo and his father will be safe? Hehe..._

_...You were right. How did you know, that it was you and your family I wanted, far more than Theo and his? Well, I might be able to answer that, but it would ruin the game for you._

Curie smirked.

_Hahaha! That's right. Cat and mouse... The chase starts now. I'm looking forward to making you squirm._

The sack was ripped off my head and I blinked. Curie had been in my head, and I wasn't even in the dream state. Were they getting stronger?

_You're right, I am getting stronger. But only because Urayne is. I take some of my energy from Urayne._

I swivelled around on my feet, so fast I made myself dizzy. But I knew I wouldn't find Curie. Two blue rangers had slithered away into the shadows; I caught their backs for a brief second.

_After we spent so long together, in that miserable tank... Urayne and I formed a connection. Much stronger than you and stupid Rosalind, or even Theo and his father._

You shut up, I yelled at Curie in my mind. How could they say that about Rosalind?

The place I was in was dark, and I'd almost forgotten to orient myself, what with Curie's constant nattering in my brain.

I could vaguely make out some shapes, my bag on the floor beside me. It was leaning against some sort of cage-like contraption, its glass cover shattered, its metallic sides rusting from neglect and exposure.

I twisted my head up – there were two skylights in the room, but they were providing very little illumination. I could make out stars through the grimy panes. So, the sun had gone down.

I gotta ask, I said to Curie. Why is it you want my family? How are we useful to you?

_You figure it out. It begins with U._

Uranium? I frowned. That doesn't make any sense. Cameron can help you more with that.

_Don't mention that traitor to me again. Not Uranium... Utility. Did you or did you not take economics last semester?_

Seems like you got more out of it than me, I snapped.

_You're too clever for someone who's shortly to die... I'm going now, it's no good if you can tell where I am and what I'm doing. I want to see you stumble around, all on your own._

I tried to ignore Curie's condescending tone. I felt things quieten down in my brain, so they hadn't been joking.

My feet scraped unnaturally loudly against the floor as I started to walk in a quick recon circle – I realised I must have been in a cavernous room, its corners hidden from me by the darkness. The night was almost silent, with the exception of scuffling from outside, which I didn't want to know the source of.

I grabbed my bag and checked for my pokemon. All five were present, though they were still on low health after our Omicron battles. I gulped.

I let kitty out of its ball, and it was surrounded by a faint green glow. It hissed and yowled, trying to lick its wounds clean. I quickly applied a hyper potion.

So, we were in one of the power plants; kitty showed the trademarks of ambient radiation from uranium fuel rods.

"Come on," I said in a low voice, grabbing onto its scruff.

Kitty was just as reluctant as me to leave the room. I cut straight ahead for a wall, then followed its gentle curve by touch alone, until my fingers smacked into a cold steel door.

The grunts and snorts were louder now. I didn't have any fire-type pokemon for illumination, but I was almost glad of that.

"You ready?" I whispered to kitty.

"No," the PST translated.

"Good, me too," I replied. At that moment, all three power plants were abandoned. Whichever one I was in, I should have been able to easily locate the perimeter by moonlight, and escape. Kitty seemed unaffected by any stylus, meaning I would have a full team to thrash Urayne with if the need arose. It wasn't going to be difficult.

I felt around until my hand came to a rest on the angular edges of the door handle. I gripped it, and tightened my grasp on kitty with the other hand.

I opened the door.

I screamed. Yikes! Two unearthly green orbs loomed above me, hovering in the middle of a vaguely familiar bright green outline. Once my heart rate had returned to double digits, I recognised the pokemon as a nuclear Tofurang. It opened its enormous maw and shrieked at me.

"Go, kitty!" I shouted. I was starting to wobble on my feet, and suddenly I felt nausea clamp down on me like a physical wave, and the room started to spin. "Kitty," I gasped. "Use night slash!"

Thankfully, kitty knew me well enough to maintain its slashing attacks and not waste critical time with Leech Seed. The Tofurang, with its nuclear instability, was slain quickly, but more pokemon were approaching, attracted by the noise.

With a final stagger, I toppled to the ground and dry heaved. I was close to blacking out. The green glow around kitty was intense; the radiation must have been much stronger out here.

I felt sharp jaws clamp down around my leg, and then I was being dragged across the floor. I tried to kick, but I was too weak to get good purchase.

There was the echoing slam of a door, and suddenly everything was quiet again.

It took me five seconds of clenching all my muscles tight, preparing for the ripping teeth I'd been certain were coming, to realise I wasn't being eaten.

I opened an eye shakily to see the eye of my Metalynx looking back at me. Kitty opened its mouth and licked at my face with its mangy, smelly cat spit. I'd never smelt anything so comforting in my life.

"Thanks," I mumbled.

"Like I said, I got your back, homie," kitty replied. I realised the PST was still clutched in my hand.

I pulled myself upright, and the nausea was fading. This was a safe room. My first thought was that I was in the Epsilon bunker, but I scrapped that when I remembered the underground bunker wouldn't have skylights.

I shook my head and grabbed onto kitty, running my hands over its familiar grassy fur.

I had to focus. I wasn't going to get out of here by sheer stupid determination. I'd be consumed by the radiation before I made it out of the building. Lesson one from the Amatree Gym: always respect the environment.

I pulled myself upright. There had to be something in here which could help me. Curie wanted to play a game, and throwing your opponent unarmed into battle was not a game; that was an execution.

The corners looked barren, shrouded in darkness as they were, but I headed into each of them anyway. Lesson two from Venesi Gym: some things are not as they seem. I came up empty-handed from the first two, but hit the jackpot on number three – I all but crashed into a stand which held on it a mass of stiff material. Pulling the item down and taking it beneath the skylight, I saw that it was a radiation suit.

I held out my foot for kitty to fist-bump.

I quickly stripped off my hoodie and climbed into the suit, but not before making sure my eight badges had been relocated safely to my wallet.

The suit was similar to the ones Stan and I had worn at the uranium mine. It zipped up neatly; Curie had chosen a good size for me.

A light started blinking on the wrist-mounted control panel when I put my weight onto the hard soles. Battery charge: 30%. Radiation shielding: HIGH.

I snapped the plastic helmet into place and felt odorous filtered air being circulated past my face. I coughed, and the sound was uncomfortably loud.

A strange mechanical yowling was playing next to my head. I looked down. Kitty was hissing at me. I pointed the PST at it.

"Hot look." The crackling PST voice was further degraded as it passed through the sound system of the suit. I gave kitty a companionable pat with the big bulky gloves.

"Let's go," I said, and heard my voice being relayed from speakers pointing away from the suit. That was a fucking weird experience.

I didn't head straight back to the door. I combed through every square metre of that room, navigating by touch if I had to. When I again bumped into the strange steel machine in the centre, I realised its shape was familiar – it was a healing pod, like the ones used in every pokemon centre.

I hurriedly returned kitty to its Master ball (honestly, that creature was far more pampered than it needed to be), and placed all six of my balls into the holds. I hit the switch like I'd watched the nurses do a thousand times. There was no response.

"Anything?" I asked kitty, letting it back out.

"Anything what?" kitty replied with a blank expression on its face.

I packed my balls away. Of course it wouldn't have been so easy. An execution isn't a game, but neither is a handout.

"No electricity," I muttered to myself, listening to my voice bounce off the plastic shield of the suit.

I used what items I had on my pokemon, but though their wounds were sealed up, they'd all had a long day and wouldn't be able to restock on PP without a proper rest.

Nothing for it. I let the curved wall guide me back to the exit, kitty plodding resolutely along beside me.

"Ready?" I asked.

"No, the PST translated.

"Good," I replied. I opened the door.

The wild pokemon seemed to have cleared away. Maybe Curie had just used them as a warning for me to get my fucking suit on before the gamma rays dissolved me. Cheers, buddy. Always got my back.

I tried to jog down the hall, but the suit made anything past a shuffle impossible. It was extremely heavy, and I felt like my legs had ballooned to the size of stobie poles.

I took the next left. There was now a tiny smidgen of light filtering in from somewhere, and I could make out the outlines of walls and ceiling. Though to be honest, it wasn't impossible the light was coming from the radioactive building itself.

I took a right. The corridors all looked the same – scattered with loose papers, broken coffee cups. I remembered this power plant had been operational until just a week ago. I tried to imagine engineers and techies gossiping in the tea room to my right, or hovering over the control panels to my left.

I continued my ungainly traipse through the dungeon of doom.

Taking another right ahead, I realised I was getting nowhere. There weren't even any exit signs. I checked my suit. Battery charge: 26%. Radiation shielding: HIGH.

I rounded another corner and shivers broke out on my spine. Two rows of fluorescent green, perfectly rounded teeth grinned at me. The nuclear Paraboom let out a demonic screech and, before my ensconced ass could react, launched itself into battle with Psyshock.

...I opened my eyes again. I hadn't been hurt.

Kitty had leapt in front of me, hissing and taking the attack front-on. It retaliated with Leaf Blade, sending the rabid, unstable pokemon staggering back into the shadows.

Lesson number three from Snowbank Gym: Trust in your pokemon.

I quickly let out Shalegas, an idea forming in my head. I gripped onto the Conqueror's ropey feelers. "Beam me up, Shalegas."

With kitty gripped in the other hand, Shalegas floated to the ceiling, the sides of its ship scraping against the narrow walls. As it started to drift forwards, the sharp steel edges cut clean through the brick, leaving a deep gash running down either side of the corridor.

Shalegas took several turns. My arms were killing me. I didn't just have to hold myself up, I was supporting several sacks of lead on my back too. Oh well, better than having to fight the fluorescing pokemon I could see congealing below, attracted by the demolition sounds Shalegas was making. They snarled up at me, radioactive spittle flying from their mouths. I started to sweat. I turned up the air conditioning in the suit. Battery charge: 18%. Radiation shielding: HIGH.

Shalegas stopped abruptly, and loosed its Laser Beam towards the ceiling. The fire and electric type attack blasted a clean circle in the roof, and soon we were rising through the dust (I covered kitty's mouth – Auntie was always serious about asbestos safety) into the pale light of the moon.

I looked around us, amazed. The building was single-storey here – we wouldn't have been able to escape at any other spot.

"Good call," I said to Shalegas, impressed.

"Space is my domain, dawg," it replied. "I seek it like a plant seeks light."

Before we could erupt into a rap battle, we were both startled to shrieking by a sudden explosion of light. I turned my head to the left in shock. One entire block of the power plant, including the courtyards and car park, was suddenly bathed in brilliant illumination. The whining of a motor had picked up in the distance.

Curie had turned on the lights.

_Oh yeah, that's right._ They giggled. _One more thing I forgot about. Don't be so keen on leaving just yet. There's someone here you might want to save._

Vaeryn? I snapped. You know I couldn't give less of a shit about Vaeryn.

But Curie just smirked at me. _Try again. Heh... He ran into the plant after you, nobody could stop him. Just as well. I could never stand the bastard._

So it was Kellyn. Curie laughed again, and the sound faded away in my head.

To be honest, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to save Kellyn or not. Curie had seemed certain I would try, and I knew that they wouldn't be so callous as to suggest I was on life-sacrificing terms with my negligent father.

I pressed on. Maybe it wasn't Kellyn. But if not him, then who?

I needed to find that generator anyway; my suit was running on 9% battery by now, and I was forced to turn the radiation shielding to MEDIUM to conserve power.

I let Shalegas carry me across to the lit-up wing. Through one of the shattered windows, I could see somebody pinned against the wall... I gasped when I realised who it was.

"THEO!" I shouted, squirming in Shalegas's hands. "Let me down!" I couldn't believe it!

Kitty and I were thrown through the empty frame, but Theo didn't react. He was slumped against the far wall of what looked like a meeting room. My stomach sank in horror. He was either unconscious or...

"Theo, wake up." I clunked across the room and began to shake his shoulders.

Oh no...

Theo's outline was beginning to blur. Colours jumped and flashed across his body. A large black eye was materialising in the middle of his head. The Dramsama let out its hollow, rattling coo and I jumped back, tripping over my suit's bulky shoes.

There was more green than any other colour. I realised this pokemon had been irradiated. I rolled out of the way with a groan as it unleashed Radioacid, the attack slamming into the floor where I had been, leaving a charred burn.

5% power warning, the display on my suit flashed. Plug in immediately!

"Kitty! Use leaf blade!" I shouted, trying to pull myself upright. The radiation shield was collapsing, and I felt sickening nausea creep back into me.

Mrrrrrrow! I looked at kitty in horror. It had frozen up. We were in a stylus zone. Shalegas, hovering outside, was also outlined in the familiar green glow.

"NO!" I shouted. "Curie, you want me to die?! What about your plans?" Sad fact that I was now bargaining for my life with my death. Bet you never thought you'd see that.

There was no response. The Dramsama bellowed again and attacked with Radioacid. The gunge hit me straight on the back this time, and I felt searing heat cut all the way through my suit. Once it died down, I realised I could still wiggle my limbs. So the lead sacks had taken the impact, but I didn't know how much more they could handle.

Suddenly, before I could again fail to pull myself forward, the lights cut with a dramatic bang. I looked out of the window – the first thing I noticed was the green glow around Shalegas was gone, and the second thing was that the next block along was now blazing with light.

My head reeled, and I barely even registered kitty ripping into the nuclear Dramsama with Night Slash, taking it out in a one-shot.

I let Shalegas drag me back out of the broken window. Kitty and I sat atop its ship, one on either side of the fleshy head, and watched the plant, breathing hard. Curie had orchestrated a bizarre sequence of start-ups. Each block – four in total – seemed to light up for around thirty seconds, accompanied by a stylus field, before going dark again. The light flitted round the plant in a circle, chasing its tail.

"Quick!" I shouted, as I noticed the light in the third wing go out.

Our original location would be powered up in a second. Shalegas quickly dove for the skylights which were lit like pyres once the lights came on. I let out Tracton as the other pokemon froze up, and it crashed through the plate glass with Iron Head.

I quickly leapt down into the safe room, my suit flapping open at the back. I ignored the sickness which took me over – I'd forgotten to close the door on my way out. My suit was now completely out of power, and I fought against the dizziness which tried to suck me into the afterlife. I hurriedly returned all my pokemon to their balls, placing them in the healing pod.

All done. Once the lights went out, Shalegas could fly again and we crashed through the roof, not bothering to protect the room anymore now it was awash with radiation.

"What do you want?!" I shouted into the night air, riding on Shalegas's ship. "What the fuck is it?!"

Curie laughed in my head. _You still don't get it? I just want to see you suffer, because it's fun for me, after I suffered myself for so long. And the kid in the stasis tank, looking at his miserable face... it makes my heart dance. I hate him. It always made me angry when you hung around with him. He doesn't deserve anything, the spoiled brat, what with his daddy doting on him like that._

_I know nobody will hurt us while you're here, so what's the harm in having a bit of fun while we can?_

_Oh, and you know, I'm also training Urayne with its final special move, the one I will use to kill you all in due time, in front of all of Tandor._

The lights flitted on and off. I tried to ignore Curie. On and off. I stared at them, screwing up my brow. It was getting harder and harder to think as the radiation poisoning set in. The suit was ruined; I had to get out of here.

On and off.

That was it! Curie was keeping Theo in a stasis tank. That needed continuous power to run. If the power was intermittent, Theo couldn't have been on site!

"Go," I said to Shalegas, leaning over the side of the ship to retch.

Promptly, as soon as it tried to fly over the plant perimeter, Shalegas crashed into some invisible force field, a flash of green lighting up the night sky. Fuck. It dropped to the ground, paralysed.

I quickly sucked it into its ball – we would have to walk from here. I got pyrite out to ride on; I could barely stagger another step, let alone embark on a trek through the forest I could see beyond the boundary.

Two large steel columns glinted in the moonlight, towering above the trees in the distance. Sheldon's AN plant. So, I had been taken to Power Plant Zeta.

_Okay, go for a walk, then._ Curie seemed to be sulking. _I'll be here waiting for you when you come back._

Well, that was ominous.

I felt my lungs starting to clear up as we walked further into the forest. The hazard zone didn't seem to spread too far from the plant, then. I took in deep gulps of the clean, oxygen-rich air, ripping off the helmet of my suit to let the breeze wash over my beleaguered face.

Soon, I was feeling well enough to hop off my ride and walk myself.

The next moment, I truly regretted losing my revulsion to exercise, as a pair of hands grabbed onto me from behind a tree, and I was yanked with incredible speed into the darkness beyond.


	43. Power Plant Zeta Part II

"Ari!" A woman's voice. "Ari, what are you doing here?!"

I opened my eyes, which I didn't remember squeezing shut.

"You haven't trained your Gararewl since our battle," someone said sulkily. I could faintly see the outlines of three people. "Nice S51-A though."

"Shush! We can't let them know we're here," another voice hissed.

Suddenly, there was a kafuffle, an insistent pushing on my back and I was being shoved back out onto the forest path. My foot crunched into something that sounded like a pile of metal pieces.

What the fuck was that?!

The forest was silent once more. I looked up at my trusty Gararewl. I poked my head around the tree, but saw absolutely nothing. Perhaps it had been a radiation-induced hallucination.

I climbed back onto my horse. Best not to overdo it.

_Come back to me, don't leave me here all alone,_ Curie implored with a sneer. I ignored them. I was sure they were bluffing now, that Theo was out here somewhere. I wasn't going to let them buy any more time with their elaborate games to power up Urayne; I was going to drive them away from anywhere they could obtain fuel. I'd bought my life, now I was going to buy back my death too. I realised how much I still had left to experience, and I wasn't going to let this piece of shit take that away from me.

I was lost in thought when pyrite crashed into a small brick hut. It kept going, grinding into the walls. I patted it fondly on the head.

A green glow was emanating from inside, and a generator hummed underground. This was it. I'd found Theo. I hopped off the horse and pushed open the door of the hut.

_Damn you. I never can, with you._ Curie was annoyed. _I should know. I should know how to play you. Well... you want to destroy me, which is a shame, but I can defend myself too._

The little brick hut was only an entryway – a large trap door was raised in the middle of the floor, hot green light spilling out from the underground.

_Come on down and join me._

Excuse me, I said warily.

_You got it. I'm down here with him, watching his sad little face, remember? It was my rangers who were playing with the lights back at the plant. But I wasn't lying when I said there was someone you might want to save there._

What do you mean, I snapped.

_You already know. One of them is special to me, but she's special to you too. Piece it together, I'm getting tired of waiting._

I plunged into the pit of green hellfire, landing on the floor with a thump. I quickly pulled my helmet back on for what little protection it could afford, my lungs stinging again as the radioactive air billowed into them.

I didn't have long in here. I'd be a goner before five minutes were up. Get in, rescue Theo, pummel Curie and Urayne to oblivion before they could carry out their murderous plans for our families or make Tandor any more dependent on the inter-region power link with Sinnoh.

This was going to be the most productive five minutes of my life.

I quickly sucked kitty back into its ball. It didn't seem like there were any pokemon in here, and I didn't want to be focused on shepherding my steel beasts as I tried to dash through the nuclear labyrinth.

For, indeed, this underground dungeon was laid out like another fucking maze. Maybe there was such a thing as fateful death. I was obviously in another bunker, just like the one under the Epsilon plant, but instead of being a safe haven it had been flooded with poisonous air. The Geiger counter on my suit was going crazy.

The familiar bunks, tables, and cupboards had been turned on their sides, stacked together in heaps to form the walls of the maze.

Nothing for it. I set off at a jog. Lesson number four from Tsukinami Gym: Everything in balance. I needed to run fast enough to get to Curie in time, but not so hard I'd burn myself out. Running had that effect on me even when I wasn't surrounded by high level nuclear waste, thank you.

As I rounded a pile of couches, lungs heaving, the roaring in my ears suddenly skyrocketed in intensity. I was fading fast. I needed to get out of Urayne's fallout. I turned my head to the right – through the green-brown haze, I could see a door leading out of the main bunker.

I quickly stumbled towards the exit; I expected even the illusion of respite would re-energise me. 'GENERATOR ROOM', the sign below the little window read, though I only had the reserves to give it a cursory glance before I collapsed through the door.

The haze was thinner inside, blocked by the thickly leaded panes. I gasped for breath, and the irony hit me like a freight train. That door had been designed to protect the bunker outside from the generator's radioactive fuel core.

I leaned over and threw up. I let kitty out for comfort, gripping onto its grassy fur and breathing in its mangy scent. Kitty seemed restless though, and darted away from me, running back and forth as little laser lights flitted across the walls. These lights were flashing on the generator.

Hissing, kitty leapt up into the corner as a red beam shot up from the control panel. It seemed to be a warning light.

Kitty's yowling grew more frenetic as its feet became tangled in the mass of wiring which was strewn all over the floor. I noticed strange nodules adorning some of the wires – like the plugs on phone chargers, but a lot bulkier.

The generator whined noisily. I hauled myself over to the wiring, and tried stabbing all the bulky chargers into my suit. 

I groaned. Please. I yanked the final wire from where kitty had tangled it around its feet, but that one was the biggest flop of all. It was much too small, and clunked emptily around the metal port.

The warning light was back again. Kitty let out a caterwaul and leapt up onto the panel, chasing the red spot like it was going for the Olympics.

CRASH! Slam! The control panel buttons were crushed beneath kitty's steel paws. I closed my eyes in desperation.

A beeping from my wrist penetrated through the fog of confusion. I could barely drag my eyes open, and I was seeing triple. My three Metalynx pranced around the room, hissing and yowling. "Tesla charge activated." Something was blowing past my face. The stale winds of time probably, judging by the smell.

I gave in to the sweet embrace of death.

...

My head was bouncing around. I managed to prise my eyelids open, and saw kitty's paws slapping the helmet of my suit from side to side.

I rolled away, groaning.

That's when I realised my suit was lit up – kitty had been chasing the lights on its ventilator. Heart pounding, I quickly lifted up my wrist. Battery: 7%. Radiation shielding: MEDIUM. Charging: Tesla wireless.

"YES!" I almost shouted, though I was far too weak for any displays of jubilation. I realised I didn't feel sick anymore. Despite the torn lead sacks on the back, my suit had managed to reboot.

I grasped the control-panel-destroying kitty in a bear hug. Its stinky feet must have hit the right button.

"Must get the light," kitty panted, thwacking my head again.

The red warning light was still flashing. I dragged myself to my feet, supported by the solid kitty (though its back folded lithely towards the ground under my hands – it was, after all, still a cat).

CORE POWER: 115% CAPACITY, the control panel display blinked its message in bright red block letters. OVERHEAT RISK: MED.

_Don't touch it,_ Curie snapped in my head as I went to put my hand on the power dial. _The stasis tank needs it._

Right, I snapped back. Even better, I'll have Theo to help me whoop your ass.

_Don't,_ Curie said again in warning. _If the stasis isn't shut down correctly, it can damage whatever is in the tank. Irreversibly._

Then shut it down. Let him go, I shouted.

_Why?_ Curie smirked.

Because you must have some good in you, I bluffed. Theo's just a kid, he doesn't deserve this.

_A good person?_ Curie laughed. _Am I? Are you? What does it even mean to be a good person? You didn't deserve what you got growing up, we didn't deserve it. You should be on my side. I'm going to hurt the people who hurt you, who hurt us._

CORE CAPACITY: 115%. OVERHEAT RISK: HIGH

Shut it down, I yelled at Curie. You're going to blow the whole place up.

_Come and make me._

I grabbed kitty by the scruff and hauled it outside. The green haze hit me almost like a physical blow, but there was no turning back now. Soon, we had run out of range of the Tesla wireless charge, leaving the suit on 20% - more than enough to beat up one dumb pokemon, I hoped.

I made it through the rest of the maze quickly – its early reaches had been constructed with far more care than what were essentially just mounds of trash near the back of the room. I'd found Curie before they were ready.

Leaping over the hastily scattered chairs and bunks, I reached a wall of cupboards running the width of the bunker. Tracton smashed through the flimsy timber with Iron Head, and then all of a sudden I was back in the TAPCO archives, turning the little model reactor in my hands... I realised it was a small scale replica of the luminous stasis tank in front of me, the same stasis tank I'd seen in the Epsilon bunker.

This piece of work had been one of my mother's projects, the machine she created Urayne with.

Curie themselves sat perched on Urayne's shoulder as per usual. The green haze was so strong I could barely make out the lines of Urayne's body, and besides the familiar glowing outline of the stasis tank, all I could see in that corner was a shock of red. Theo.

"Hi Ari," Curie said nonchalantly, folding their arms. "I sure underestimated your strength. Since when did you work out?" Their voice, distorted through the mask, was still eerily high-pitched.

"Let him out of there," I said. "And leave us all the fuck alone."

There must've been something in the ventilation system of the suit. Like, cocaine maybe. I was totally jazzed.

Curie smirked. Their mask jiggled a little as they laughed. "Well we've come too far to go back now... I'm only going to finish what I started."

"You've always got a choice," I said through gritted teeth.

"That sounds like something Cameron or Rosalind or Kellyn would say, living their filthy lives of privilege... Come on, Ari, that's not us. We're not like that."

"Don't speak for me," I shouted.

"Remember Tsukinami? Some things are not for you to decide. I suggest you be quiet. I want you to take out your phone and call Cameron."

"Excuse me?"

"Just do it," Curie said calmly.

I took out my phone. "There's no signal," I said.

"Urayne, the field," Curie snapped. "Okay, try again now."

I dialled Cameron's number, the same second as missed calls and messages started flooding in. Cam picked up almost immediately. "Oh my god, Ari," he gasped. "Are you okay? Where are you? Do you need help?"

I waited for Curie's instruction. They smirked. "Go on. Answer him." They had a hand over the stasis tank's power cord.

"I'm okay. I can't tell you where I am," I said carefully, watching for Curie's nods. "I have a request for you."

"Very good," Curie said, giggling. "So smart... Tell him to unlock the Silverport lab right now, or his son dies."

"Cameron," I said carefully. "Unlock the Silverport lab."

"I can't do that," Cameron shouted. "The blue rangers have thousands of nuclear pokemon stored in there. I don't know what they were made for, but if they're released..."

"Hey," I broke in as Curie sighed impatiently. "They have Theo."

Cameron wailed. I did feel sorry for him. Despite the nature of his job, I still felt like he was more innocent than the likes of Kellyn or myself. I realised why. It only seemed that way because he still believed in the good in people.

"Okay, I'll do it," Cameron said. "But only if I can talk to Theo."

"Can't do," I said. "He's in a stasis tank."

"NO!" he shouted. "No! Not Theo! Help me, Ari! You've got to get him out of there!"

A shrill beeping started from somewhere behind me. CORE POWER: 120%, the machine intonated mechanically. OVERHEAT RISK: IMMINENT

"I'm still waiting," Curie said. "I have a ranger there. I'll know when Stormbringer has complied."

"Hurry," I said urgently to Cameron.

"I... I can't!" he shouted. "I left East Tandor already! We're tracking Urayne's quantum traces! It'll take me hours to get back to Silverport."

OVERHEAT RISK: IMMINENT

I dropped the phone and dived for the stasis tank interface.

I crashed straight into a searing hot, green wall. Urayne had thrust one of its hands in my path.

"Here I'd just finished saying you were smart," Curie sneered.

"Do you want to die?!" I shouted, pointing towards the generator room.

Curie shrugged. "We're all dying anyway, who have I heard say that before?"

I pulled out Tracton from its ball, realising that kitty had frozen up in a stylus field. "Get 'em, Tracton," I shouted, backing away from the huge green monster. "Dragon Claw!"

"Urayne, get back!" Curie retaliated, ordering their pokemon out of harm's way, letting Tracton clash its fangs down on thin air. Curie whistled. "Get out, Nucleon! Baariette! Xenoqueen!"

OVERHEAT RISK: IMMINENT

I watched on in horror as a hoarde of huge nuclear pokemon emerged from where they were crouched behind the stasis tank, waiting. The three empty eyes of the Nucleon bore into me and my Tracton, as if that very scintillating gaze could destroy us just by us having seen it.

"Welcome to the apocalypse," Curie said with a smug smile, as the generator exploded, sending shuddering, resounding tremors through the whole building.

The light in the stasis tank cut out, and I could no longer see Theo's hair. The huge explosion had me hitting the ground, and the ceiling buckled, caving in over the majority of the bunker, sealing me into the stasis area with Curie and their murderous nuclear team.

"Dragon claw, Baariette!" I shouted desperately from the ground as the three nuclears descended onto my pokemon. Although Tracton fought its hardest, ripping into the Baariette, it was soon overwhelmed by the sheer strength and numbers of the counterattack. Baariette, mega-evolved, survived the hit, and brought down Cross Chop on Tracton. Nucleon finished it off with Hyper Voice. With no target left to maul, Xenoqueen's Half Life hit me.

I groaned in agony as the nuclear blast ripped through my suit, shredding what remained of the lead packs on my back.

This was it, I thought as I looked over at my frozen kitty. I was going to die, and of course it had to be underground. There must have been such a thing as fate.

I closed my eyes as the Xenoqueen came down again with Half Life.

...

YOWL! HISS! MRRRROW! My eyes flew open in shock. Kitty, somehow freed from the grip of the stylus, had lunged forward, taking the attack and slamming into Xenoqueen with a one-shot critical Leaf Blade.

I looked around in confoundment. Curie looked around in confoundment. Sensing their trainer's confusion, the nuclear team held back momentarily, giving me time to rip Shalegas and blades from my bag.

"Stand down, Curie!" a voice shouted, the female voice I'd hallucinated in the woods earlier. Curie's head snapped up. My mouth fell open.

Standing above us, visible through the gaps in the shattered roof, was Solana, dark blue hair flying in the breeze. Beside her stood Sheldon and Morgan Pierre. Morgan held some sort of box, and Solana a stick which she threw down towards me.

"Get 'em Ari! Do us proud!" Solana shouted.

I caught the stick in both hands. The heavy piece of metal was glowing bright green, absorbing stylus radiation. Tractonite.

I struggled to pull myself back together. I had to nail the next attacks or we were going to be smashed before we'd had a chance to fight back. "Blades, Aqua Tail, Baariette," I shouted. "Shalegas, Psychic, Nucleon!"

But even as we were attacking, more pokemon were appearing as Curie sensed the gravity of the situation. A towering, mega-evolved Arbok, and finally Urayne itself was sent forward into battle.

"Kitty, leaf blade!" I shouted, sweating like crazy inside my suit. Fallout was chewing into the hole in my back. "Blades, Aqua Tail! Shalegas, Laser Pulse!"

Urayne moved ahead of everyone else, sending a huge antimatter beam into Shalegas's ship, blasting it towards the ceiling and crushing steel against reinforced concrete. "Goddammit!" I roared. "Blades, GO!"

Blades ripped into Urayne, taking about half its HP, and Kitty was left to field Arbok's attack. Shalegas reeled, jammed against the ceiling, and loosed its Laser Pulse slightly to left of target, doing nothing more than singing Urayne.

Urayne went again with Overheat, scorching Shalegas into oblivion. I didn't even have time to get angry. I shouted orders to blades and kitty, deciding to take out Arbok first as Urayne's special attack had taken two big hits from its moves.

This was a big mistake. Urayne loosed Overheat on kitty before it even had the chance to move, and, already weakened from Xenoqueen's Half Life, this was a one shot.

I started to sweat majorly. Blades took out Arbok with Aqua Tail, but it was next in line for an assault from Urayne. "Pyrite, get out there," I screeched, sending my level 34 gentle beast into the firing line of a level 65 nuclear apocalypse.

I apologised to it under my breath.

Blades' next Aqua Tail missed and I cursed a thousand times. Pyrite landed Metal Whip, but not before blades had been reduced to red health with its shit ass special defense.

"Aqua Jet!" I shouted, sweat pouring down my face.

"Wahahaha!" Curie hooted with laughter, watching me flounder.

"Ignore them!" Solana's voice reached me weakly from above."You're stronger, your pokemon are your friends. You've got this."

And blades brought its tail down on Urayne's sides, the double-edged sword slicing hard through the artificial flesh. Urayne roared in fury, but it was too late.

That was a critical hit.

I watched as Curie stared at their pokemon in absolute stillness, their expression inscrutable through the gas mask. Urayne let out a final rendering screech, and a blinding flash of green light threw me physically back towards the wall. I felt something knock hard on the back of my helmet. I realised that impact would probably have cracked my skull open had I been unprotected.

"No. NO!" Curie shouted, watching as Urayne imploded down into its familiar Alpha Forme, reaching no higher than my waist. The spheres above its head rotated to a standstill.

"Urayne..." Curie shrieked, falling down to the ground with a crash. "Respond to me! It's me, it's Curie! Are you okay?"

Even as I watched, a dramatic change seemed to be overtaking Curie.

They staggered against Urayne, coughing violently. Their legs folded at unnatural angles as they leaned over and gasped for air. Jesus. They'd probably taken a bad hit of radiation from Urayne's brutal decay.

"Silverport? Do we have Silverport?" Curie rasped, grasping tightly onto Urayne's neck, though it toppled under their weight.

I caught myself feeling sorry for them. Well, that was just a little bit concerning. Blue rangers were just now appearing from the shadows, their styluses hanging uselessly at their sides.

"Sorry boss," one of the blue rangers said, checking something on his pod. "We still can't get in."

"Get the Sheebits!" Curie shouted, though it wasn't much of a shout.

"Yes... yes, boss," the ranger replied.

"Ask her for help. She still has the emergency access codes. I've seen her files."

The ranger seemed to know who Curie was talking about.

"We think Cameron..."

"Just do it!" Curie gasped. There was a hint of desperation in their voice. They leaned over and erupted into another round of hacking coughs.

Once the rangers had left, Curie tried to steady themselves against Urayne, and folded to the ground upon failing. They seemed to be ignoring me entirely.

"Urayne. Urayne, wake up."

They grasped at the spheres above its head, twisting them with all their might.

"I have more fuel for you. We'll reverse the Sheebits' irradiation to save you. Please come back."

I had to really strain my ears to catch what they said next, and when I did, I was truly shocked to realise how much it affected me.

"You've always been my only friend."

But Urayne was already responding. I looked down at my hand in horror. I was holding out the Tractonite towards it, and it was absorbing the strong radiation from the metal, regaining strength. I swore I had not moved any part of my body.

"Thank you, Ari," Curie said quietly. "I always knew you were a good person."

"Stop," I said, sweat beading on my forehead. "Stop, I didn't mean to do that." I could feel Solana judging me from upstairs.

I wrenched my hand away stiffly, but it was too late. Urayne had been revived. It still struggled weakly in its Alpha Forme, but what might have just been a victory for me had been destroyed by my own treacherous subconscious.

But yet again, what happened next stunned me. Instead of charging at me again in battle (I would've been an easy defeat, with most of my team wiped), Curie started coughing and retching and leaned gingerly against the recovered Urayne.

"Urayne, put me back in the stasis tank."

My eyelids peeled back.

"At Epsilon - this one is ruined. I need to save my energy. Let me back out when Ari is ready. I will tell you."

"Excuse me?" I snapped. What in the name of...

"And if anyone comes near us, kill them," Curie finished.

Urayne leaned down to gently pull Curie up onto its shoulder.

"Ari, hurry up and get to the Championship. I can't wait for justice to be served."

"Slow down brother," I said, still grasping at straws. "You're talking in riddles. Championship? Justice?"

Curie snickered weakly. "You still don't get it, do you? Maybe you aren't as smart as I thought, or you're just too fixated on your own bubble world of delusions."

They shuffled, and Urayne pulled itself upright.

I could hear Cameron shouting at me from my phone, which still lay on the ground where I'd thrown it.

"Pick it up," Curie said quietly. "What's he saying?"

"ARI!" Cameron hollered into my ear. "Ari, I've done it! The lab is unlocked! I got help from Foster-"

"Wait," I said desperately. "No... You need to close it again." My stomach sank as I looked towards the darkened stasis tank.

"I need to speak to Theo!" Cameron begged, seemingly ignoring me. "I need to know he's okay. Please."

Curie laughed, enjoying themselves even though they were very sick.

"He's fine, he'll be awake in a minute," I lied. "I have to go get him out of the tank. I'll call you-"

"That's enough," Curie said with a snicker, giving Urayne some signal. The line cut out.

"You and your fibs. As for me... I've watched you think about all the good things from your journey, which is all very sweet and everything," their voice dripped with sarcasm, "but if you hone in on the bad things for a change, maybe you'll suddenly figure it out."

I'd had enough of thinking for the day.

"Hah, I thought so." Curie laughed weakly. "Urayne, take me away."

With a flash of light, Urayne tunnelled through the cross-barred door at the back of the bunker, off into the impenetrable underground network beyond.

After a few seconds of silence, surrounded by my chopped-up pokemon, I raised my head stiffly. I stared at Solana, who hadn't spoken through the entire episode.

"...I think I might have missed a couple of chapters," she said slowly, her voice part fascinated and part terrified.

"Nah man. I've been here the whole time and I still don't know what's going on."

"That Curie... they're a piece of work, aren't they?" So she hadn't been judging me, or she was just tactfully avoiding the subject.

I shrugged. "Cameron reckons they've been hanging in the stasis tank for a while. Like, a few years maybe. They've probably had time to think and make up some dramatic lines."

Solana started to scramble down into the ruins of the bunker. I noticed she had on a special suit, as did the others.

"It doesn't matter," Solana said. "Come on. We've got to get Theo out of there."

My stomach twisted again as I looked back towards the tank. Sheldon began to heal up my pokemon, but I'd lost interest.

Solana and I stared horrified at the person inside the stasis tank.


	44. Going home

"Theo?" I said eventually, my voice managing little more than a lame whisper of sound.

"Stand back," Sheldon ordered, pushing the appalled Solana aside and leading his Tracton over to the stasis tank.

"Solana, use Iron Head," he commanded.

Solana (human) didn't react for a couple of seconds, then her face collapsed into a bemused frown. "Excuse me?"

I watched on in slight amusement, but mostly still dread, as Solana (pokemon) bashed through the thick glass walls of the tank, sending broken shards flying and a torrent of water - I hoped it was water - spilling from inside the cavernous machine.

"That's not sexy," I heard Solana mumble as Sheldon went forward to retrieve his pokemon, blushing.

I pulled myself forward, feeling like I was watching whole years of my life unfold before me on a screen. Dull pain was spreading across my unprotected back, but I ignored it. I had to get to Theo.

He was already starting to come around. His new jumper hung in tatters from broad shoulders, his shorts torn apart at their seams. I gulped down another breath, removing my helmet. This achieved precisely nothing besides expose me to more radiation, because it wasn't like I needed to expand my view. I really didn't need anything else to get bigger in front of my eyes.

We helped Theo up wordlessly. He was coughing, deep, booming hacks.

"What happened?" he asked shakily, and his voice sounded like Cameron's. "Honestly, I tried to fight –"

He stopped abruptly and looked down at himself in horror as he heard his voice. He looked down at us too. Theo's head now hovered just above mine, towering above Solana.

"Oh my god," he screamed, and I proceeded to literally see a grown man cry. Because that's what Theo had become. There was no mistaking it.

Theo had come out of the stasis tank aged about ten years.

"Ari, what's going on?" he yelled again, breaking down into fresh tears. "Why do you look the same? Everyone else looks the same!" He was starting to border on hysterical.

I didn't blame him. Wow, that sucked big time. Most people at least got to prematurely age their bodies with alcohol and stressful lifestyles; Theo had just received all of the results with none of the experience.

I looked in desperation towards the scientists, but they were just as baffled, and only Theo among us spoke, or wailed rather.

"How do you feel?" I asked at last.

Theo broke into fresh sobbing. "You've even become a psychologist while I was out. I've missed so much."

"Don't be stupid," I snapped, my nerves strung out like a poorly constructed violin. "It's only been a day since Omicron. Besides, it's you who would be the fucking psychologist."

Theo seemed to be calming down. Maybe things seemed more normal when I was insulting him. I tried another one: "Pity you didn't turn out hot. We were all still hoping for a miracle."

Solana gasped. Theo giggled.

"Wait," I said, inspiration striking. "That must be it. The stasis tank... you know what it does to time..." The room was starting to spin around me (and not in a good way, like when you're drunk), so I reluctantly replaced my helmet, and my train of thought promptly flew off a cliff.

"Let's get out of here," Solana said firmly, stepping forward to steady me. "You're sick, it's the radiation. Sheldy, grab their pokemon."

"Yes, master," he sniped, packing my balls away with a sour expression.

"That's fresh," Solana said, raising her eyebrows. "Tractonite got you into batch processin'?" Scheduling reference. Wow, obscure even for me. Sheldy had a dirty mind under there.

He mumbled what I assumed was an eulogy for his ammonium nitrate plant, a forlorn expression on his face.

I was herded along, stumbling and tripping over pieces of rubble, my own feet, or just nothing at all. I was really struggling to stay conscious at this point. Solana grabbed my hands from above and someone gave my legs a booster, then suddenly I was back in the forest, ripping off my helmet to let fresh night air flood into my deprived lungs.

Theo was set down beside me.

Nobody spoke for the longest time.

"The radiation is gone here," Theo said eventually, still sulking over his newly deep voice.

"It's the Tractonite," Morgan Pierre said, giving his large box a shake. Metal pieces clacked and tinkled as they smacked into each other; I'd heard this sound before, during my hallucination in the woods.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Look at this," Solana said, perking up and retrieving the goods from Morgan. "Your idea worked great, Ari. Sheldon and I have been training and breeding Tracton out here. We figured this place is just about abandoned, so it was the best choice for hiding."

"Morgan's done the production at Epsilon," Sheldon added, throwing my bag at me. "Still working on the yield though," Morgan said, running a hand sadly through the shallow layer of metal pieces. "Density difference isn't great."

"Stop sulking," Solana said with a grin. Theo's head snapped up, which was tepidly amusing. "This is fantastic. There's more than enough to go round for the rangers. Actually Ari, now that you're here, you can take them back to Kellyn for us."

"Before you go," Sheldon quickly interrupted, levelling a hand in front of Solana. "Honestly," he said quietly to her, "where's your scientist spirit?" And to us: "We need to find out what happened to Theo. He seems perfectly fine, just..."

"Just a hundred years old now," Theo said with a glower. "Yeah, I'm doing great, thanks."

I thought back to my switcheroo at the power plant, and felt my stomach take a dive. I knew someone who might know.

"Who ya calling?" Theo asked, trying to modulate his voice and failing.

"Sesame Street, to take their cookie monster back."

"Hey," Theo hollered, clobbering me over the head. Except it actually hurt now he was big. Rats, I thought with a scowl. No more ducking from the gym if I wanted to keep my face off the Moki main street.

"Ari?" Cameron picked up immediately. "Thank god. I thought you'd been attacked."

"Nah," I replied, giving Theo a lazy smile. "Just emotionally." It wasn't even Theo. I was still unnerved by what Curie had said about all the bad things.

Theo gasped as he leaned in closer to listen. "Dad? Is that you?"

The real apocalypse began then. "THEO!" Cameron boomed, blowing apart my eardrums. I winced and my hand recoiled protectively, letting Theo seize and make off with the phone within. The ringing in my ear didn't die down for several millennia.

So much for that idea.

"I'm big now," Theo said excitedly into the phone. "Like, you're not gonna believe it. It's kind of gross and weird. Has it really just been a day? Have you caught Curie yet? They were here in the bunker with me and Urayne was here. And Sheldon's here. And Solana. They came to save me and Ari."

There was no provision for Cameron to get a reply in, though I heard the odd shout of "THEO" which was cut off mid-word by a further lengthening of Theo's monologue. Readying myself, I snatched back my phone.

"Not fair, I'm talking to my DAD," Theo yelled.

"He's excited to be out," I said quickly to Cameron. "But we need to talk to Vaeryn about the tank. Is he there?"

Cameron digested for a few more seconds. Take your time, buddy, the voice is always a pleasant surprise. "He went with Kellyn to Belbeach. Call your dad," Cameron said eventually. "Ari, I need to ask, are you safe?"

"Yeah, everything's good. We ran into Sheldon and stuff outside Zeta, they've got some Tractonite. It can clean up radiation," I said.

"Okay, I'm fifteen minutes away," Cam replied, the relief showing in his voice. "Wait around if you want a lift."

"Yeah cool," I said and hung up. Theo still had an unattractive glare on his face, and I almost felt like matching it cos he actually was kind of hot now, which was wildly inappropriate and concerning given our relationship to date. I dialled Kellyn's number.

"Ari?" He picked up on the third ring. "Where are you? Where did Curie take you?"

Everyone's alive and well, thanks for asking.

"Just around," I said, suddenly unwilling to divulge any of the juicy details. "Cameron's coming in a sec, you don't need to worry."

Kellyn sighed. "Sorry. You know I've never been good at, um... sentiment. Are you hurt?"

"Nope," I said, ignoring my back. "Curie generously gave me a suit to wear."

"What?" he almost shouted. "Is this another one of your jokes? Where are you that you need a suit?"

"Nowhere," I said with a scowl, suddenly tireder than death. "I need to talk to Vaeryn. Is he still with you?"

"Vaeryn?" Kellyn said after a pause, having calmed down from his cleansing yell. "Oh... you mean Viktor. Yes, he's here, resting up. I'll just pass you over."

There was a longer pause and a lot of scuffling. Resting up from his harrowing ordeal of being saved.

"Ari," Vaeryn came on the line, stuttering. He'd lost almost all of the mysterious serenity he'd faked for the citizens of Snowbank. "Thanks again."

"Tell me about the stasis tank," I drawled, hitting speaker on the phone. I wasn't interested in Vaeryn's tributes. "One of its victims wants to know."

"Oh, dear," he said. "I'm sorry about that. I can't imagine it's a very pleasant experience."

"I didn't feel anything," Theo said sulkily. "It was just like having a bad dream and I'm not a baby."

"Tell us how it works," Solana quickly interrupted.

Vaeryn paused. I visualised him squinting his eyes, trying to figure out how many people he was talking to. "Gravity, of course," he said at last. "It's the only way to slow down time."

Sheldon slapped his face. "Dammit, I could've guessed that."

"Keep going," Solana said encouragingly.

Vaeryn let out a sigh. "I guess I should help you, to make up for everything."

We waited. Sheldon was already desecrating a receipt with hasty calculations.

"There's a strong artificial field in the tank, so time passes infinitesimally slowly for whatever's inside... so I guess it's not really true stasis, but something indistinguishable."

"I don't get it, how'd you manage this?" Sheldon was flinging bits of paper around. How many subjects was he an expert on anyway?!

"I don't know," Vaeryn said apologetically. "I ran before it got anywhere. The stasis was Rudi's idea, for storing Urayne after its, um, construction. Most of us laughed it off as impossible, but I suppose Lucille was smarter, as usual... if anyone could prove us wrong, it was her."

"Your mum made that?" Theo said incredulously, pointing down the hole in the ground.

"I guess," I mumbled, my voice once again settling at the lamest of levels.

...I guess?

Get a grip, Ari. There was no 'I guess' about that. I really needed to sort out what I knew for sure and what I only thought I might. Lucille had at least been on the team which built Urayne. That was a fact. I gritted my teeth as my mind ticked over like a confluence of rusted cogs.

"There were always problems," Vaeryn admitted. "Lucille had already hit a dead end, before I left... I'm afraid we weren't very nice to her about it. The tank was looking like a write off; the field was dipping at the slightest power change, I'm talking millivolts. I guess she managed to fix that though."

"Wait," Sheldon cut in. "Dip? How far would it dip?"

"Not much," Vaeryn said, the phone speaker flattening his voice. "But enough that Urayne – and it was sentient, however much Rudi tried to deny it – could move around."

There was a crash nearby, and refreshing drops of rain began to pound my face. I heard the mighty cry of Yatagaryu.

"Dad!" Theo shouted, springing to his feet and staggering slightly, unused to the height. "Dad, we're over here!"

"Be quiet, you chicken nugget," I hissed. "What if it's not him?"

Sheldon and Vaeryn were still in the throes of discussion, so I left my phone behind and grabbed Theo's arm, dragging him along to go greet the visitor. I had recovered enough strength to carry my bag, though the strap scraped painfully against the burns on my back.

"Kids?" Cameron's voice carried through the woods. I hurried up my jog, making a beeline for where I could see light flickering between the trees.

"Nice suit," Cameron said, his torch beam finally boring into my eyes. I turned around to model its characterising hole.

The next second, Theo had glomped his father with an affectionate shout, almost crushing him to the ground.

"Jesus," Cameron gasped, arms and legs flailing. "Jesus..."

Theo towered over Cameron. This was hilarious. "He did tell you," I smirked.

Cameron shook his head. "I just... I'm just... I'm angry. I wanted to see you grow up properly, all the little moments, you know?"

Theo rolled his eyes. "Dad, I'm still me."

"You're going to have to go to school like this," Cameron said, his face darkening. "I'm moving you out of Moki. Or I'll homeschool you. I don't want you getting bullied."

"Dad!" Theo whined. "Don't talk about school! The holidays just started!"

"Anyway, nobody will dare fight us if we win the Championship, amirite?" I elbowed Theo and he whooped.

"You even beat up Curie, didn't you? That's why they were gone?"

"Not beat up... maybe struggled to a win," I grumbled. "Urayne's back in Alpha Forme." I left out the part where it had died and been revived by my treacherous compassion.

"I wish I'd seen it," Theo whined.

I still came up short every time he spoke. I didn't want to let this affect our friendship, cos I knew it was still lame old Theo inside that brain. But if it did, if I couldn't make it work... would that really be my fault?

"Where did they go?" Cameron bounced back to business mode. "Curie and Urayne, I mean."

"I heard 'em say Epsilon," I said. "Curie wanted to be put in stasis... yeah, I don't get it either. Urayne will recover though, they're going to feed it radiation from those Sheebits, so don't get too close."

"Sheebits?" Cameron sighed impatiently and Yata fidgeted, sensing his frustration. "Silverport, of course. God fucking dammit."

"Dad," Theo said. "You said we couldn't say fuck."

"Well, how old are you now?" Cameron snapped. "Thirty? You can say fuck."

"YES!" Theo shouted triumphantly.

To be honest, he looked seventeen or eighteen, like a fresh frat boy who'd just been hazed, so it wasn't that bad. Theo ripped off the remaining shreds of his jumper and put on his dad's jacket.

"Ari," Cameron said, turning his back on Theo. "Leave that suit with us. We'll reverse engineer it so we can get people into that bunker. Not you, of course, you've already done more than enough..."

Theo's face was hopeful.

"You think I'm letting you near them again?!" Cameron turned to roar, crushing his son's dreams. "I'm sure the gym leaders can handle Urayne, especially Maria with her champion team..."

"What?" both Theo and I shouted.

"She didn't tell you?" Cameron almost laughed. "Guess you get old and stop caring. Maria won the Championship a couple years ago, that's why the Gyms opened up a spot for her. There aren't many jobs going round these days, but when you've got something like that on your CV..."

I thought of Auntie's persistent nagging about my all-important career. Well, sounded like if I won the Championship, I'd be set for life. I knew what I was doing with the rest of my holidays. Forget Bamb'o and his dex when I could see real dollars on the horizon.

"What levels?" I asked.

"They're set at 70 or 75, I can't remember."

I felt uncharacteristic optimism. My beasts were up to the low 60s, not too much grinding to go.

"Anyway," Cameron said. "Stop distracting me. We're heading back to Belbeach. We'll get you kids checked over, get that suit to our scientists. And who are they...?"

We'd reached Sheldon and Solana's camp by the bunker ruins.

"Solana, remember?" I said. "They have the Tractonite."

The three of them looked up, soaked to the bone by Yatagaryu's storm, hair plastered to their faces in thin strands. Sheldon had the Tractonite box balanced on his head, shielding my phone. Morgan Pierre waved.

"The saviours of Tandor." I indicated the soggy trio.

"I think we've figured it out," Sheldon said excitedly, the box wobbling. "Vaeryn said power surges would screw up the grav field. Well, what if the exploding generator sent it so far..."

Solana snorted. "People still believe in antigravity, evidently."

"Well, you got a better idea?" Sheldon continued. He wasn't even mad. His eyes were lit up with the power of an unusual passion for quantum physics. "This would perfectly explain why time sped up for Theo."

Solana shook her head. "I still don't agree. He obviously doesn't remember anything. So it passed like a second for his mind."

But I was already starting to side with Sheldon. I didn't blame Solana; I had information she didn't. I knew how possible it was for someone's body and mind to run on different time frames in the stasis tank.

Sheldon clapped his hands in glee. "Vaeryn, this is groundbreaking. We should publish. The stasis tank is still there, if we need to do more experiments."

Vaeryn coughed, the sound flattened. "My experimenting days are behind me, Sheldon."

We all waited for more, but that was it.

I guessed Vaeryn's reticent side wasn't an act, then.

Cameron spent a while advertising the copious space on the back of his Yatagaryu, but Sheldon ultimately declined all offers for a ride back to civilisation. It seemed he and Solana had grown fond of jungle life, though Sheldon insisted it was because there was so much work to be done.

Morgan claimed a piece of prime real estate, leaving plenty of space for me, Theo, and Cameron up the front. We waved goodbye to the capricious couple. I felt slightly sorry for Stan.

Morgan was let off at Rochfale; it seemed he had cross-departmental business with Lily Cypress, who was back in town from her cold war flashback. The rest of the journey to Belbeach City was made in silence; I didn't think any of us wanted to hear Theo's voice again.

The sun was rising by the time we landed. Cameron had managed to subdue Yatagaryu so it didn't bring the dead of winter back to the roaring tourist precinct, and the especially enthusiastic surfers and sunbathers were left to enjoy their morning solitude without hailstones raining on their backs.

My suit was carefully removed at the Belbeach hospital (I almost felt compelled to check the rooms and make sure Cameron wasn't really there, in a coma, even though he was walking along right beside me) and I was given a set of actual clothes to wear so I wasn't traipsing round town like Yuri Gagarin in that Russian field.

I come in peace. I'm just like you. I must make contact with Moscow.

Kellyn came to visit while Theo was getting his once-over, and we stared awkwardly at each other. Cameron stopped short of nodding in greeting; I hoped it was because he still thought Kellyn was a douche, and not because he was worried about Theo, who was very energetic.

"Ari," my father said eventually. "Ari, what I said to you back at Omicron... I meant it."

A surge of nastiness bubbled up inside me and I decided to indulge it. Time for me to feel good about something. "Oh, what did you say? I didn't hear anything."

But Kellyn didn't wince this time. "I love you, Ari. I'm proud of you. When I saw what you did for that man..."

For fuck's sake, I didn't do it for Vaeryn.

"...I was suddenly very proud to be your father."

The bearer of half my DNA.

"I don't expect you to forgive me for everything I've done," he said sadly. I looked at him in surprise. "It would be nice, but I know I probably don't deserve it. I just want you to know I love you anyway."

His face was red. I could feel colour rising to my own cheeks and fought it back down to a pasty white.

"Have you been drinking?" I managed to croak out.

"Yes," he admitted, looking at the floor. "I wanted to say all of that to you... but you heard me on the phone. I kind of just clammed up. So I took a couple of shots to help me out."

I couldn't restrain my smirk. Some things evidently ran in the family.

"You're not on the job?" I asked, a bit more amicably.

"Doesn't matter, I have a vice. This was more important."

"I'm touched." I couldn't keep the sarcasm from my voice, which I couldn't decide if I regretted or not.

"So... you're going to go for the Championship then?" He tactfully changed the topic. "I got this from Hinata." He pulled out a shiny piece of metal and a grin spread itself across my face.

"It's your eighth badge. She and Kaito were impressed by how you helped them on the island... They agreed you were more than deserving. Hinata explained it all when I got back to Tsukinami. She's doing fine."

"Good," I said. I meant that.

Kellyn reached out to pin it on my new shirt, which I didn't object to. I'd have to get the other badges out and get a proper order going. Kellyn had put his badge where Rosalind's usually went.

"So, congratulations," he said. "You've beaten the league. You can take the Championship challenge any time you want now. Give me a call when you get there, I don't want to miss it."

Kellyn left after that; there wasn't much else to say. Cameron and Theo were having a D&M down the other side of the ward, and their lively back-and-forthing was like sodium and chloride in my ears. I sighed.

Suddenly, I was all alone, and there was nothing left to take care of, no more phone calls to make, no more immediate mysteries to unravel. I tried to think about what I had on Curie, but the storylines all blurred into one. I was tired. I hadn't slept properly since my abduction, and sleep felt like a strange concept now.

Honestly, was there any one person left in my life who wasn't bitterly embroiled in all the drama? Even the dead ones were involved. Theo, Cameron, Kellyn, Lucille, Vaeryn, Rosalind, Lily Cypress, even stupid Amy with her Chicoatl. Maybe it was me who was the problem. Maybe I just couldn't get away from the drama because it was coming from me.

I groaned and put my hands over my face. Why was this my path.

Nobody noticed or cared when I left the hospital and made my way to one of the city's many luxury hotels.

I ordered a strong drink with my least-used fake ID. It was 7 in the morning. This was getting more and more out of hand.

I was scrolling Facebook when I saw some inane re-post from Rosalind, and I had an idea which might not have been bad. I gave her a video call.

"Ari?" I was surprised she'd answered at this ungodly hour. Sheets, unruly black hair, and a delicate frown filled most of the frame, so she was in bed.

"Hey," I said, taking a sip of my drink. "What's up?"

Rosalind laughed and her face relaxed. She sat up so I could see her properly. "You call at 7am to ask me what's up," she said. "But okay... Shit show last night, I fucked up like ten lines and Sal had to save my life, again."

"Damn," I said.

"What about you?" she asked.

"Not much," I replied. "Got my eighth badge, found out my best friend's dad isn't a terrorist, watched him age ten years in a time warp."

"Holy shit," Rosalind replied. "I'm never complaining about anything again. Was it something to do with that spectacle on Omicron Island? It's been all over the news. Said they found old bombs under the power plant."

"That bit's true," I said lightly. It was good to joke about all of this. "But not the main story."

"Christ. Can you spill?"

"I'll risk the jail time. Curie had a gym leader hostage and switched him out for me. I chased them round Power Plant Zeta for a bit."

"That's intense. It's like Chernobyl over there, isn't it?"

"Not quite..." I looked down at my bag. I'd forgotten to give the Tractonite to Kellyn. "Remember Solana?"

Rosalind gasped. "You ran into them."

"Small world. They had enough Tractonite to clean up the whole forest."

I felt myself relaxing as we talked. It wasn't even the alcohol, I'd only had two drinks and with the kind of tolerance I'd built up that was like drinking orange juice, just without the Vitamin C.

We talked for about an hour and a half, the conversation eventually degenerating to dirty puns and jokes, inspired by Sheldon's new fascination with master-slave (scheduling, of course). Curie didn't even come up once beyond the initial goss. This was extremely refreshing.

My third drink untouched, I exited the bar to book a room. Rosalind I left to go renew her license or whatever it was real adults did, and I stretched myself out on the hotel bed, letting morning sun beat down on me through the windows.

The warmth punted me off into slumber. I wanted to figure it all out, like Curie was so desperate to see me do, so I thought hard about the bad things – Kellyn being shit, growing up without a family, floating through life like a leaf in a windstorm, ready to be crunched in kitty's jaws. I felt nothing. You'd think I might be sad, or angry, but lying on the bed I really just felt nothing.

I drifted off to sleep, thinking of Curie sitting in their stasis tank, sick and alone, hated and feared by almost everyone in Tandor.


	45. Steel beasts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The awesome art featured in this chapter was created by Kyri (http://pheonixia-nocturne.tumblr.com)

 

It was only two hours later that I was mercilessly extricated from the embrace of unconsciousness, but my mood had improved from the nap. It was kitty who had woken me; its impatient hissing and rocking in the ball had hit the power button on the PST, assaulting my ears with a fluid stream of profanities from Shalegas.

I stretched out as blades joined in the banter, and the two of them discussed how much of a dud Tracton was. This was shit of me, but I agreed – lately Tracton and its inferior IVs had punted it to the bottom of the pack; its main use lately had been stylus resistance, and even that wasn't necessary any more.

Chatter and sexual sounds from the other rooms on my floor threaded underneath my door, and I listened to the normal people going about their lives. I was going to go out today and do something a blissfully oblivious pokemon trainer might, such as train for the Championship, or walk around on the street without critical infrastructure getting blown up in their wake.

A smile very almost crept to my face as I tossed up destinations. Now that Shalegas could Fly, pretty much anywhere in Tandor was within my reach. I probably could've flown to Sinnoh as well, but I would've been kicked out as an illegal immigrant by their ranger patrols. These days Sinnoh had a new prime minister whose favourite pastime was signing refugee resettlement deals.

"Any ideas?" I asked kitty, letting it out of its ball. Its fur was mangy and fluorescent from Zeta. We all needed a nice long soak.

I spent the next hour transforming the hotel bathroom into a demolition zone as I washed my steel beasts with the high-pressure showerhead. Strands of kitty's grassy fur lay all over the bathtub, floor and toilet, coming off in handfuls when I grabbed onto the delinquent's scruff to bring it back into the firing line.

Shalegas was only slightly easier to wash, although the comparison was a bit of a reach. It was like pitting washing your dog against washing your car. Both tended to end in a lot of cursing and cramps in your arms. (In this case most of the cursing came from Shalegas).

Thankfully blades didn't need washing, and pyrite was relatively untainted, so all that remained was Tracton.

"Good morning, Ari," it said, coolly regarding its team mates.

"What's up?" I said guiltily.

"Just overheard an interesting conversation. I wasn't aware any new branches of the Country Club Elites had opened up recently."

"Hear that," I said to Shalegas, spraying water on its newly shiny dome. "Bit of a shame to come all the way to earth just to become a Liberal."

"Cut out that sass," Shalegas snapped back. "I'm a third party voter."

Shocking. I didn't know what was worse.

I finished hosing Tracton down, then herded my beasts out of the room so I could take a shower myself. My feet squished and squelched atop pieces of grassy fur. It was like walking through seaweed, but worth it for the wash.

Eventually I managed to get most of the plant matter into the toilet and the bathroom was looking presentable. I shouldn't even have bothered.

Opening the door, ready for a relaxing trip to the buffet bar, I was greeted by a panorama of war. The bedsheets were shredded and one item hung gingerly from the corner of the curtain rail, on the other side of the room... Kitty and its switchblade claws were curled round one of the pillows, the fur on its back standing up.

Kitty hissed at Tracton, which roared at Shalegas, which was trying to use blades as a projectile.

"Team huddle," I thundered, and the battlers fell silent, shuffling guiltily towards me.

"It wasn't me," kitty skulked. "It was Shalegas."

"What wasn't you?"

Four heads turned towards the open balcony door. Fuck...

I ran over to the warped railings in time to watch a passer-by return pyrite's steely helmet to its head, from where it had been dislodged during the fall.

"Thanks mate," I called. "Is it okay?"

"It's fine," the woman called back. "You should keep them in their balls." She pointed up at the zoo in my room.

I watched her help pyrite to its feet, and sent Shalegas down with its ball.

The rest of the rescue operation was conducted in silence. I threw a fifty down to the woman for helping, and she dabbed at me before dashing into the TAB on the corner. I guessed this was normal for Belbeach.

"Team huddle," I ordered once again, and the beasts returned to encircle the bed. I sat gingerly on the shredded duvet.

"Now, where were we," I catalysed the conversation. "Shalegas did it?"

"I did not. Look at the horse's body, it is unmarked by the elements," Shalegas snapped. "I'm not a physical attacker."

It loosed off all three types of Laser Pulse in indignant demonstration, blasting three weather-ringed holes through the bathroom door. I closed my eyes.

"Objection!" Tracton piped up. "Your Dark Pulse does not leave a mark."

"Objection, I didn't fucking use Dark Pulse," Shalegas sniped.

"Then how was pyrite flung off the balcony," I said wearily as the bags under my eyes visibly ballooned.

"It jumped," blades said matter-of-factly. "Seriously guys. You could've just said."

I raised an eyebrow at the ball in my hand.

"And give up a perfectly entertaining argument?" the so-far reticent kitty drawled, its sarcastic gaze alighting on Shalegas. "Y'all been dying for a chance to use those Ace Attorney lines."

"I'm cool, brother," Shalegas said, narrowing its beady eyes. "I don't watch anime. Phoenix Wright is an idiot, anyway. How did he pass the fucking bar?"

"Why did pyrite jump off the balcony?" I yelled.

Silence settled comfortably over the room.

"I'm no snitch," blades said, when I shifted my gaze towards it.

"Kitty, my man," I said, pursing my lips.

"I'm no grass either," kitty replied, its hips oscillating as Tracton bounced its head down on the bed.

I reached menacingly for pyrite's ball.

"Fine," Tracton said, letting its big old noggin come to a rest. "It was my fault."

I gotta admit, I gasped.

"But I didn't touch it. It jumped by itself."

"Yeah, cos you were trolling us with, like, Crouton's Law or something." Shalegas jumped in with a monster eye roll. "Pyrite just wanted to see if it would really fall at the same speed as an apple."

"Newton's Law," Tracton snapped back. "Ironic that _you_ would insult Phoenix Wright."

"Enough," I said. "Shut up, all of you. There is a serious lack of something beginning with C in this room right now."

"Cool people," Shalegas hissed, glaring at Tracton.

"Competence," Tracton sniped back.

"Cheese..." kitty drawled lazily, reclining on the bed.

"The answer is communication, you losers," I said. "We have to work together and respect each other if we want to win the Championship."

"Maybe that's what you want," Shalegas grumbled.

"Please," I said, rolling my eyes. There was only one bigger attention whore than me here.

"So Tracton, cut it out with the put downs. Shalegas, get the fuck over yourself. Kitty, devil's advocates go to hell."

"I'll see you there," kitty muttered.

"And blades... nah, actually, you're okay." I waved dismissively. Blades was so far innocent. "Got it, everyone? We have to look out for each other."

My pokemon were all shifting uncomfortably.

"What," I said tiredly to kitty.

"They're kinda pissed off at you as well," it said eventually, to the dagger-like stares of Shalegas and Tracton.

I turned my half-closed eyes to contemplate those in question. I waited for an explanation.

Tracton sighed. "You know, you said we have to look out for each other. But you're always using us to fight, and you never help us recover."

I stared at Tracton in disbelief. "You're kidding right? Do you have any idea how many Frequent Flyer points I've collected at the pokemon centre?"

"I didn't mean physically," Tracton said. "I meant, like, all this fighting is a bit hard on the feelings, especially at those creepy ass power plants."

"Dude, you don't have to make us sound so lame," Shalegas snapped. "What Tracton's saying is it's a bit of a drag. Can't we have some fucking fun for a change?"

I contemplated my beasts. I realised guiltily that I probably treated them like Kellyn treated me.

"Fine," I said, trying to keep the colour out of my face. "What do you want to do?"

"Go to the beach," blades said.

"Eat chicken biscuits," kitty said.

"Walk in the forest," Tracton said.

"Beat up muggles," Shalegas finished. I glared at it. It was grinning smugly. I couldn't believe it had just requested fighting as an alternative to fighting.

"Muggles," Shalegas said again, rolling its beady eyes. "Muuuuh-guuhls. Not those fucking nuclear machines. There's a difference."

"Great," I said. "I know what we'll do then. Road trip."

"What a fresh idea," Tracton said, sarcasm dripping from its fangs. "I haven't been on a big one of those recently."

I threw my hands in the air. "Get back in the balls. Let me think."

There was a chorus of complaining as I returned my pokemon to their captivity spheres, and I put my bag in the bathroom so I could think sans hissing.

The beasts were right. We needed to get away from it all for a day. I thought about my options. Belbeach had nice beaches, but was crawling with my relatives, my nebulous past, and three of the four major expounders of the miserable drama which my life had become. Four out of four if you counted Curie festering on Epsilon Island.

So that ruled out Belbeach. Actually, pretty much any city with a gym was out of question, because they were almost all tied in somehow. Half of what remained was covered with Chernobyl-scale fallout, Rochfale held Lily Cypress who was hardly a small player, and Silverport Town had been the literal and metaphorical epicentre of a shitstorm explosion.

That really only left Kevlar Town – if you fall back into the dimmest recesses of your distant memory, you might find a hazy recollection of Kevlar Town. The country dump at the end of route 1, my first night away from home, back when I had a cute pokemon and negligible emotional scarring.

I flung open the bathroom door and let out Shalegas, which had calmed down from its battle of wits.

With a spring in my step, I locked the door of my hotel room and went downstairs to check out, laying ten crisp hundos on the counter with my key. The receptionist gave an understanding nod as she watched Shalegas mime shooting random strangers (I didn't even have to look).

I quickly took to the air once outside, before Kellyn or Theo or anyone else could catch sight of me from a window or god knows where. My usual method of flying was now to hang onto one of Shalegas's feelers, straddling the ropey part with my legs. That way I didn't need my wits about me to stay balanced, like I would have to if I were sliding around on the dome.

Shalegas got its directions from the mothership (she was out there somewhere, Shalegas often told me) so I only ever needed to command a destination. Soon we had cut over the lush rainforest of the Midwest, the mountainous oilfields of the south, and were descending towards the dusty and somnolent Kevlar Town.

...Perhaps we were mistaken?!

Shalegas landed hesitantly on the outskirts of town. Doof. Doof. Doof. Spine-shatteringly loud music was pounding from a makeshift stage in the central park, surrounded by shrieking teenagers and underage drinkers. Like, these people made me look sane.

"What's the deal?" I yelled at an old man sitting in his garden and glaring towards the festival.

"You never heard of schoolies?" he snapped back.

I gasped. Schoolies... in Kevlar Town?! I thought everyone went up to Belbeach or at least Nowtoch City. This was fresh. Probably a tourism incentive. I patronised one of the bars and wasn't even asked for ID.

"Just ten bucks," a lad came and sat beside me to peddle drugs. "It's new stuff."

"I prefer my classics," I yelled.

"I've got everything else too," he said hurriedly.

Shit. "I was joking."

"Okay, what about berries, for your pokemon?" He pointed at Shalegas and gave me an inviting smile. I sighed. He looked thirsty; probably needed to make some sales before he could hit the bar.

"Help a brother out," he finished sheepishly.

"What do the berries do?" I asked.

It was like accidentally being too nice to an insurance salesperson. "Oh, they're kinda like drugs for pokemon," he started saying very fast. "Your pokemon will love you if you shoot 'em up with these. But trainers use them as cheat berries as well, cos they wipe EVs as a side effect."

That was mildly interesting. "Okay, give me a sec." I checked out the beasts' EV spreads on my pokepod. I noticed blades had over a hundred special attack points, a waste on its coveted adamant nature. To be honest, none of the EVs had been done very competently, which was not a surprise given that half the time I battled I was trying to save my ass, not train up my pokemon slaves.

"I'll take some special attack ones." I thought of Shalegas. "And some attack. Wait, how much?"

"Better deal than the shop, it's like a 40% discount," he yelled, deflecting my question. "Honestly, you should get more, this is the only place in Tandor where these things grow."

"How much," I yelled again.

"Six hundred each."

Tracton was not getting any EV-deleting berries.

I eventually ended up spending about 40k out of my 300+ (battling was a lucrative business). I ordered more extra-strong drinks so I could reach the same plane blades and Shalegas had been punted up to by this shit. I then fed kitty the last few speed berries, taking its already pathetic stat down to 81 and its laziness up to Hall of Fame history maker.

"Wake me in a month," it drawled contentedly.

As it was, I ended up waking it quite a bit sooner than requested. I had some unexpected visitors.

"Hello Ari," the defense ninja from Legen Town said serenely to me, stoned on something. "Kevlar Town has the best parties these days."

Two more ninja bounced along behind him.

"These are my brothers," he said with an affectionate smile. "There are six of us in total... where is Tarou? I've told him those food trucks are not healthy."

But weed is, I thought amusedly as I watched his eyes float from side to side.

"Kenichi, how do you know this kid?" one of the brothers asked. "Are they a dealer?"

"No," he replied with a smile. "A customer."

"Ah!" Two pairs of eyes lit up. "We love customers. Can we offer you any training deals today?" They high-fived behind Kenichi's back.

I sighed. Oh well, being hassled by merchants beat being hassled by Curie any day, which buoyed my mood once I realised. "Sure," I said with a slightly inebriated grin.

The rest of the afternoon went by on a drunken breeze, and I had a great time. The crap music got better the drunker I got, and I watched my money do the talking to the ninja brothers: Ayumi worked with Shalegas and blades on speed, my pokemon lunging from left to right and back again across my field of vision, and Miki worked with kitty on attack. I had the financial means, but I couldn't be bothered rearranging Tracton's EVs.

The brothers also progressively got more and more stoned, using my payment to buy more drugs. I was not concerned about getting my money's worth. Like my pokemon had said, they were sick of working, so they were probably having a blast getting tripped over and wrestled with by the ninja. So Ayumi wouldn't get crushed, I let Tarou work with Shalegas as well on HP. Either or was good.

I didn't care.

It was very refreshing to just spend an afternoon not caring.

I just sat there in my folding chair of opulence, head bopping along to some shitty indie band, being waited upon by those who wanted my money.

Curie and the drama were half a region away, and I had turned off my phone so as to avoid Kellyn, should he call. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better day off, and it was all thanks to Shalegas throwing a hissy fit and opening up the dialogue. It was all cool.

By the time the lights came on, ready for the party to continue into the night, I had already been shocked about a thousand times over that another 15 minutes had passed without some disaster unfolding.

"Yeww!" Ayumi shouted, showing off his moves as he darted around blades' feet. "Think fast!"

Tarou's belly dance was a hit with the school kids and he was showered with free drinks. It was 11:40. Just twenty more minutes, and I would've gotten through an entire day unscathed...

"Oh HAI! Ari!" a voice shrieked from behind me. I turned around to see Maria with a group of friends, taking advantage of their celebrity status to score some free shots.

She came up to me and we hugged drunkenly.

"Getting some last-minute training in?" she said, giggling and indicating my Daikatuna.

"Sure," I said, a little confused. I was very drunk though, so I'd probably just missed something.

"You going this year?" one of the friends asked, as the group of them sank onto the grass beside my throne.

"Nah, can't be fucked," Maria replied, laughing. "Been there, done that."

I screwed up my brow. "Wait, you mean the Championship?"

"Yeah!" Maria raised her glass and we toasted. "You're registered, right?"

"No..." I said with an expression of consternation.

"You'd better hurry up," she giggled. "It's the last take for 2016."

"Okay, I'll do it in the morning." My lips were starting to go numb and stick together from exertion. This was always my favourite part of getting drunk, because it feels fucking hilarious.

Maria started giggling again. "Don't do that. You've only got..." She glanced at her watch. "Fifteen minutes left."

I stared at Maria. She was still giggling.

"What," I said, my lips mashing together.

"You gotta register by midnight today... didn't anyone tell you? First round starts at nine on Mt. Actinide."

I furiously mashed the power button on my phone, but it was too late. Even as Maria finished her sentence, Kellyn's missed calls and texts were flooding in.

I was fucked!


	46. Blue rangers

My phone slipped in my hands. The touchscreen keyboard oscillated before my unfocused eyes, and attempting to type my name into the online registration portal resulted in such masterpieces as "WAU", "AFRI", and "STI".

Tackling the ID number field was even more of a disaster, and I ended up paying Kenichi $5 to do it for me because it had already taken me ten minutes to find the site and enter my name and birthday.

"Thanks for the dough," he drawled, handing my phone and pokeballs back to me. Registration done (in the nick of time – my League ID was 12160032. I assumed that meant December 2016, number 32, as tomorrow... today... was the first day of December), I examined what I had to work with as my stomach plummeted down to join Beliaddon in hellfire.

The first ball I grabbed was pyrite's, which you can imagine was a fantastic confidence boost. I quickly packed it away and selected another.

Shalegas, maxed out Special Attack, high HP and Speed EVs... _LEVEL 72_. I almost hit the stratosphere. "Kenichi!" I shrieked, but he was gone, retreated into the partying masses with his brothers.

I hurriedly examined the rest of the beasts. Kitty, level 70, blades, level 74 (praise be to the LORD), Tracton, still at level 65 where I had left it.

I might not be minced meat in the morning! Seemed like I had gotten my money's worth after all...

Oh yes, the morning. I groaned as I realised I had less than nine hours to get my ass to the top of Mt. Actinide, have a rest, and sober the fuck up. This should have been an easy task.

"Are you flying?" Maria asked, pointing at Shalegas while her friends took selfies with it.

"Yes," I replied, after I'd gotten my lips working again.

"You can only go as far as Legen though. I got fined $5000 for flying through the air corridor last time."

"...Huh?" I wrinkled up my brow. I'd heard a lot of long words.

Maria giggled. "The mountain's underneath the big flight path between Belbeach and Goldenrod City. They don't want pokemon getting mashed up by the 747s."

Fuck my entire life. I started to sweat.

"How far is it from Legen?" I asked.

"Oh, Victory Road? I mean... your pokemon look strong, so you should be able to make it." She could've tried to sound convincing. I cursed under my breath.

"Don't sweat it, you'll be fine," she said again.

Maria melted away into the crowd with her homies after wishing me tons of luck, and I was left languishing in a state of absolute destitution, as luckless as a block of sodium hanging over a swimming pool.

I wandered through the party, older kids raving and twerking all around me to the thumping music. I was procrastinating so hard about leaving. I purchased another drink and downed it in one long scull.

"Ari my main buddy!" a voice whooped at me, cutting above the skin-warping bass. I raised my head. I gasped.

Bamb'o's sunglasses were nowhere in sight. Even his eye bags seemed diminished, but that could've been the weird strobe lighting. His shirt was only buttoned in one place, which I realised upon closer inspection was because all of the other buttons had been ripped from their threads.

Bamb'o's chest was rather hairy.

"What's up?" I said companionably.

"Just space," he yelled back. "I hope you've been working on that pokedex. Theo is up to 100."

"Nerd," I said, grabbing onto my S51-A and searching through my bag for its Mega Stone.

"The dex is part of your job," Bamb'o admonished. "Don't forget him."

I could be persuaded to remember him with a wage, I thought snarkily.

"You doing the February league then?" he asked, pulling the two sides of his shirt together, hiding the forest.

"Something like that," I grumbled, feeling melancholic.

"Well when you're ready, I know someone who can skip you over Victory Road," he said with a wink. I stared at Bamb'o. He was probably on drugs.

"Oh yeah?" I asked, feigning mildness of interest.

"Here. I'll give you his number."

Bamb'o got out a sharpie and wrote the number down my arm in a sloppy drunken scrawl. I was on track for a great start tomorrow. Get their look: Tandor Regional Championship. Expensive hangover, $150. Tramp stamps, $0. Slightly radioactive hoodie, $20 and most of your living daylights.

"I suggest you head to Rochfale to meet him," Bamb'o said with another wink (he was feeling frisky, wow), before he was pulled away by some other old farts to continue partying.

Well, at least there was a sprinkling of hope on the horizon now, like the swimming pool starting to drain beneath the sodium block. This provision spurred me into action and I dragged myself onto Shalegas's ropey left feeler, grasping tight as things started to rotate around me.

"Let's go," I muttered, holding it in.

I had no need to state the destination. Shalegas knew what was happening; it probably paid good attention to Bamb'o, as a fellow compatriot of outer space.

I didn't even bother opening my eyes, and had a quick power nap on the way to Rochfale Town. To be honest, I was on the verge of not actually caring where we ended up. Excessive alcohol consumption was a good suppressor of ambition.

It was raining in Rochfale, as usual, so I sheltered underneath Shalegas's dome once we landed. Being a nice balmy night, I wasn't too keen to go indoors and get blasted with stale conditioned air.

I whipped out my phone, plopped myself down on my ass and began stabbing in the numbers on my arm.

04 22 375...

"I'm driving here I sit, cursing my government."

"Fuck," I muttered, trying to swipe the green circle. Rain dripped onto the screen, turning whatever words were on there into the centrepieces of a Salvador Dali.

Weird that Bamb'o's friend would have my number already, but not weirder than anything else which had happened in my life recently. "Hi," I said, putting in no effort not to slur my words. "Bamb'o gave me your number. I want to ask about your... um... services."

"Ari." Kellyn's voice. Whoops. "Did I wake you up?"

He sounded terse. I swallowed. He probably thought I was buying weed. I let out a very fake chortle in an attempt to reassure him, but this spectacle likely had the opposite effect. "No. I thought you were my..." Why would I need to take a business call in the middle of the night which wasn't from a drug dealer...? "Insurance broker."

I was really losing my touch.

"I thought I would surprise Auntie," I continued to fib. I had a brainwave. "She's going to be seventy in a bit, right?"

Kellyn was silent for a few seconds, then let out an awkward cough. "Life insurance. Great idea. Really captures the... essence of... transcendence."

There was another pause while Kellyn decided on a new line of inquiry. My eyelids began to droop. "Have you been drinking, Ari?"

"No," I mumbled.

"Okay," he replied. When he spoke again, the intensity in his voice woke me up with shocking unease. "There's something I think you need to hear for yourself. Can you get over to Nowtoch City?"

"It's kind of a bad time," I said with a nervous laugh.

"Oh, so I did wake you up?"

"No, it's worse." Well, it was.

"...All right, then I'll link you up on Skype," Kellyn said with a sigh. "I'll make sure I'm with you this time."

I gulped. What was coming.

I got the video call from Kellyn a few seconds later, and managed by some miracle to brush my finger against the accept button.

The screen burst into life, and I brushed aside the rainwater, which didn't have as much of an effect as you would think (probably thanks in no small part to my inebriation). Kellyn's tired, haggard face peered out at me through the puddle, and behind him sat a blue ranger. I thought they were in an interview room.

"Ari, this is Cadet Lori Robinson... she was part of the emergency response team sent to Epsilon in 2006. She was the first to wake up out of the rangers we picked up at Omicron."

"Hi," I said, filling the heavy silence which proceeded this introduction. "How's it going?"

Lori smiled weakly.

"And this..." Kellyn panned the camera, "is Hen Rodriguez, one of your mother's colleagues from Larkspur Labs."

The man had a familiar-looking face, but I couldn't pin it down.

"Lori, Hen, this is Ari, my kid. I won't beat around the bush because I know it's late. Please tell Ari what happened that day at the Epsilon Power Plant."

Hen spoke first. His accent was foreign. "Kellyn tells me you know about Urayne," he began. I nodded. "Most of my team was in the Epsilon bunker that day, where we kept Urayne's stasis tank, close to a source of fuel."

I struggled to focus. I needed to take notes if I wanted to remember any of this by tomorrow. I quickly called Shalegas down to the ground, so it could listen in with its superior brain (I was loath to admit this descriptor was as true as Shalegas's vanity made it seem).

"Getting this down?" I hissed. It rolled its eyes pretentiously.

Hen continued: "We were there that day to shut down the project." He was reading from a sheet of scribbled notes, his face gaunt and hands shaking. I guessed it was unnerving finding yourself suddenly ten years in the future. "Rudi Larkspur decided to terminate Urayne, because... well, we built it as a machine, like... like a fuel cell, but Lucille discovered it had become sentient, and despite all our efforts we couldn't control it. So it was no longer suitable for its purpose."

Kellyn handed Hen a glass of water, and I saw him throw something down with it. Maybe a Panadol. Personally I would've gone with a strong sedative.

"Only Lucille wasn't with us," Hen continued, a little calmer. "Larkspur blamed the whole disaster on her, especially because of Viktor disappearing... they were once very close, Viktor and Lucille."

I waited for more, but was once again disappointed.

"So Rudi kept her away from Urayne those last few weeks. The mine tour was the last thing he wanted her to do, then he was going to fire her. We all knew."

Kellyn's face was grey. I guessed he hadn't known.

"The explosion happened before we could even get to the tank. We all took shelter under the bunk beds... And that's when we saw her. We saw Lucille, coming into the bunker from a door at the back. She ran straight to the stasis tank. And that was it. The next thing I remember, I'm here."

Kellyn looked down at his marred hands. He'd probably thought hearing it for the second time would be easier.

Me, I didn't really feel anything. I'd gotten used to the odd surprise, like I mentioned back on Omicron Island. I understood what Hen's info meant – that Lucille hadn't died during the explosion, as least not in the mine collapse. But though my brain fit the pieces together, it didn't produce anything that could've been called a reaction. I was thankful for the alcoholic shield.

"Are you okay?" I heard myself asking. My mind seemed to have separated from the plane of my body.

"I'm fine," Kellyn said. He didn't look fine.

"Have a drink," my helpful alter-ego suggested.

"I will," Kellyn said, promptly pulling a flask out of his pocket and taking a swig. I was impressed.

Hen had lapsed back into silence.

"I guess this is where I take over," Lori said quietly. "My team... there were seven of us: me, Alex who I think you've seen, and five others. We got into the bunker to find them out cold, three under the beds and one by the tank, lying on the floor. I think we all passed out pretty quick too, but not before I saw something, just real quick..."

I waited. Shalegas looked bored and I slapped it. You wanna be part of the family, you listen to the family yarns.

"There was one more person in there. But they were... they were inside the stasis tank."

I gasped. The shock was finally starting to catch up with me. Could this person have been... Curie?

"What did they look like?" my mouth asked.

Lori shook her head. "I didn't see. They were tall though... short hair. Floating next to the glowing green pokemon – Urayne, wasn't it?"

My head nodded. Hypotheses were swirling through it, impressive for the amount of alcohol impairing its neurons. These two groups of blue rangers – three and seven, like Curie had said – must have been the Larkspur scientists and the emergency response team, respectively. It seemed like Curie had taken them all under mind control right there in the bunker. But what did Lucille have to do with it?!

"I... The..." I stammered, like it was the first day of NaNoWriMo.

Kellyn shook his head. "Take it easy, Ari." He seemed compelled to rise to the mark now that I was floundering. "Do you want to talk to me alone?"

"No," I replied with a scowl, the first truthful answer I'd given him tonight. Kellyn seemed disappointed, but he should've known better than to believe in miracles, especially with that shocker of a condescending question.

There was a long silence.

"Thanks for telling me the story," I mumbled.

Lori smiled but Hen wasn't looking. The last thing I heard before I hung up the call was a truncated sentence of Kellyn's: "you should try not to drink so-"

Sudden stillness hung in the air. I looked up at Shalegas, which seemed for once to be experiencing some sense of gravity. "Bestseller, huh," I muttered.

"I've heard better," Shalegas clapped. I rolled my eyes.

I gave it a few minutes of sitting in the rain (water was running down and dripping from the curved bottom of the dome) before dialling Bamb'o's friend again. I let kitty out to practise its oscillating Swords Dance, all training for tomorrow of course, and not even slightly to bolster our mood.

"Hello," a voice grated at me from the phone, touching on the lower registers of sound.

I quickly checked my watch. Oops. It was quarter past one.

"Good morning," I rasped. "Got your number from Ernest Bamb'o. I need an emergency run to the Championship."

There was a pause. I heard someone yelling in the background. "Old Ernie!" the guy on the phone hollered back, busting up my eardrums. "Great," he said to me. "Extra charge for the time."

"Whatever," I replied.

"Meet me outside the Rochfale Fisherman's Club in five."

"K."

I dawdled through the darkened streets, finding a coveted dry spot beneath one of Shalegas's hands. Rain hissed gently onto the shingled rooves, illuminated by the occasional streetlight so it looked like ice spicules were being fired down at us from the heavens.

I couldn't expressly remember the way to the Fisherman's Club, but I had a lasting impression of the place festering at the bottom of the valley, its ratty wooden walls sporting a mouldy circle of flood damage. So I just followed the streets downslope, and eventually Shalegas's eagle eyes picked up the target (not as difficult as it sounds; the lights were blazing and subdued metal was blasting in the back room).

I sat myself under the verandah to wait. The thumping of boots assaulted my ears, and the door clicked open.

I gasped.

"Hello, my old friend," Fisherman Luke cooed, making clicking sounds with his tongue and bending down to greet kitty. It meowed happily as Luke tickled it under the chin.

"What are you here for, Ari?" Luke asked amicably, sinking down beside me as kitty rubbed against his legs. "I'm waiting for some lunatic who wants to go to the Championship at this ungodly time of night..."

I decided to milk his oblivion. "Is it like a business?"

Fisherman Luke shrugged. "Well I told you funding is a bit tight. We're losing members over this Magikarp shit, it's all we can find with these BS computers. So we're looking at other options..."

I hurriedly reached out to scratch kitty too before it defected. Massage from two sides, I thought sourly as kitty's muscles twitched in ecstasy. That creature was far more pampered than it needed to be.

"Someone found an old tunnel going up the mountain," Luke continued. "We thought we'd start doing Victory Road skips for lazy trainers. It sounded better than money laundering."

I cleared my throat. Time to break the news. "Oh by the way, that was me on the phone," I said nonchalantly. I felt Fisherman Luke turn red.

"Well..." he said. There was another pause. "Then all hard feelings are behind us!" I looked up in surprise. "Customers are friends! Money bridges all divides! Tell Ernie I said hi."

"Sure," I replied with a nervous laugh. Money bridges all divides, lmao. Perhaps I could butter Kellyn up with an investment property, buy some shares to patch things up with Theo. I'm sure Curie would've been thrilled with a $500 Westfield gift card.

"Okay then champ. Let's go." Luke was all smiles and sunshine. He really cared about his fishing club. I imagined harbouring such ardour for anything.

The tunnel in question was a dank affair, covered in graffiti and dripping groundwater from the ceiling. The ground supports were second rate and splintered in places.

Luke chattered away about the latest rod technology, places where the Bas were biting, his tedious feud with Lily Cypress... I zoned out. I wasn't drunk enough for this and I was very drunk. I examined the graffiti on the walls as Luke took us down turn after turn in the labyrinth.

'One gram radium for my devotion', was scrawled in red between the tags and indecipherable scribbles. My interest was momentary. The words all blurred into one as we walked; eventually I got pyrite out to ride so I could nap.

...

"Yo Ari! Wake up!" Someone was shaking my shoulders urgently.

I rolled over and winced as hard rock bit into my shoulders. I was lying on the ground.

"What the fuck," I grumbled, peeling my eyelids open and struggling to focus the orbs within.

YIKES! An enormous, bright green set of rounded teeth was looming over my face! I sighed. I'd woken up to worse. I dragged myself to my knees, and my head was still spinning, so the alcohol hadn't worn off (not a surprise, as I didn't seem to have entered my twenties yet).

"Where are your other pokemon?" Fisherman Luke yelled, terrified and cowering behind my fainted Gararewl. "We got wiped!"

I contemplated the nuclear Paraboom and sent out blades. One shot of a super-effective Aqua Tail had the pokemon howling and scuttling... back into a pokeball. I gasped. My eyes flew up to meet the eyes of a blue ranger.

It was one of Curie's four remaining servants, not counting their ponytailed sidekick.

"Hi," I said, trying to defuse the situation. "Can we talk?"

"Just stay back... wait for a while," the ranger replied.

I threw up my hands. "Sure. No problem." I probably could've pummelled his ass but I wasn't in the mood for fighting, and I wasn't sure I wanted to know what was behind him anyway.

Crashing sounds and intense tremors reached us from further down the tunnel. I examined the ashen-faced Luke and wondered whether it was Curie who had ambushed him, or he who had suffered from an unfortunate instance of overconfidence.

I applied a Max Revive to pyrite, and lent some normal Revives to Luke for his ocean beasts, which were splayed in various positions against the desecrated walls.

"How close are we?" I asked Luke quietly.

"Literally fifty metres from the top," he whispered back. "I thought we could run for it."

I snickered. "Been there, done that."

Luke's eyes widened. "You know these people?"

"Me and Curie go way back."

I ignored Luke's beached whale expression and settled in, waiting for Curie to walk into my mind for some casual chitchat, some condescending mockery. Nothing came. There was only silence in there.

It was probably concerning that my heart rate picked up slightly, and my stomach went for a kick. I hadn't shared any meals with my mangy cat recently, so it must have been disappointment.

I literally punched myself in the face.

I really needed to make some friends, holy shit. Here I was, missing the company of the local supervillain who kept trying to kill me and everyone around me.

About fifteen minutes later, after nothing else of note besides a further deepening of my existential anguish, the blue ranger in front of us turned abruptly and, without a word, melted away into the shadows.

"Guess that's the invite," I said dryly. Fisherman Luke shook his head as if in a daze.

The realisation hit me as we were pulling ourselves to our feet; sudden calm was very conducive to overthinking. Luke's tunnel must have been part of the blue ranger network, and we had caught Curie unawares... they hadn't wanted to hurt us, as demonstrated by the placid guard who had just stared at us for the past quarter hour. They had only wanted a delay.

And, as we picked our way through the broken glass littering the final stretch of tunnel, I found out why. Discarded at the side of the tunnel, gleaming in the middle of a shallow watery pool, sat the warped remains of a stasis tank. I gingerly poked the twisted metal struts. Pyrite had a nibble.

"What the fuck is that?" Fisherman Luke yelped.

"The tank of evil," I said, half-joking.

Fisherman Luke didn't push it. He delivered me to the gates of the Tandor Regional Championship, refusing to accept payment in return for the Revives and salvation. I shoved a fifty into his bag anyway. He almost battled me on the spot in fury, lol.

So, that was that. Space twinkling overhead, I bid Luke goodbye, wishing him luck surviving the return trip. I shoved my ID into the machine at the complex entrance. My Championship number, 12160032, flashed up on the screen, my picture was taken without my consent (rude), and the little gate zipped open, allowing me passage.

It was small consolation that Curie wouldn't be able to get into the complex on such stringent security. I was sure they'd smashed their way out of that tank to come ambush me here, after having their slaves carry them all the way up.

The machine spit my card back out the other side, and a list of my gym victory dates replaced the ID number. Just for nostalgia, I guessed, and I couldn't suppress the cheesy grin which tarnished my face. I hadn't brought my badges out in a while, and I'd forgotten how big of an ego boost they were. I noticed Hinata and Kaito's 'victory' had only been recorded a few hours ago.

Lights were still blazing brightly, despite it being past two in the morning. The largely deserted lobby echoed with my footsteps as I traipsed up to the polished marble counter and put a deposit down for a room. Everything shone around me. Some trainers were working out last minute in the provisional gyms, while others chatted over hot chocolates in the cafe. Most were asleep, and raucous snoring assaulted me from several of the rooms.

My room was the last one in C wing, and the door opened soundlessly when I swiped the card. Even compared to Auntie's mansion and all the PC penthouses I'd stayed in, I had never known such opulence. Even the bathroom bin was made of the same creamy stone as everything else.

I called Kellyn once I'd set all my shit down and checked that the beasts hadn't been harmed during my nap. Kellyn was still awake, naturally.

"What's up, Ari?" he asked tiredly, trying to assimilate.

"Not much," I replied, stretching out on the cloud-like bed. "You wanted me to tell you when I got to the Championship, right?"

"Let me guess, you signed up for February."

"No, I'm here."

There was a pause.

"Like..." Kellyn began slowly. "Right now? For tomorrow morning?"

"Yeah."

I waited as Kellyn probably cursed himself for ever deciding to become a parent.

"I'll be there," he said eventually, his voice pinched. I smirked to myself.

I called Theo next, but that went straight to voicemail. Bamb'o's phone was on, but I imagined the rave was still going, and his eardrums had probably been beaten to near extinction by now. I decided I wouldn't bother continuing down the list to Cameron, or Rosalind, or Auntie... I wasn't going to be like one of those people who advocated for fourth-grade graduation ceremonies. They could hear about it when I got home.

I did send a text to Rosalind though, I couldn't restrain myself much to my chagrin. I didn't imagine she'd be up in time to get here anyway, so I consoled myself with the fact that at least I wouldn't have to own up to my desperation anytime soon.

I clicked off the phone and let myself sink further into the bed. It wasn't until my alarm went off at eight thirty, dragging me from the saccharine throes of unconsciousness, that I saw the return text which had arrived just three minutes later.


	47. Regional Championship

'See you tomorrow. I'm competing too. xx'

I stared at my phone. I could hear a loud groaning sound, and I assumed it was coming from me. Rosalind was going to get to watch me fall on my ass with my hangover, my half-trained pokemon team, most of whom hated both me and their own team mates (ok, maybe that was just Shalegas), and my distant father staring at me from the crowd.

I released the beasts for a quick pep talk while shovelling down some hastily ordered breakfast.

The beasts barely tainted the marble walls though their steel parts scraped everywhere and they crashed into every solid surface imaginable. The hallmark of quality construction materials.

"Team huddle," I ordered, and they converged towards the bed.

I relaxed into the soft mattress, staring up at four pairs of eyes. "How y'all doing," I asked.

The beasts glanced at each other in consternation. A strange question to come from Ari.

"I'm good." Tracton was the first to reply. I gave it a flashy thumbs up.

"I'm fine too," Shalegas was the next to grumble. Blades nodded reticently in agreement. I shared my Panadol around.

We spent the next five minutes looking around for kitty, which had slunk away sneakily during our pep talk. Blades checked the bathroom. Shalegas checked the tall cupboards. Tracton looked under the bed.

In the end it was me who won. I found it outside in the corridor, having been released to freedom by Rosalind.

"Don't you lock your door?" she smirked. "His tail got caught in the jam."

I examined kitty's steely blade. It looked relatively unscathed, and kitty itself was feasting on some chicken biscuits which Rosalind had fed it.

"Hinata gave me these," she said with a wink. "She couldn't seem to find where you were staying..."

"I've been around," I grumbled.

"Yeah, I figured."

We watched kitty eating in companionable silence. Its steely lips smacked together. This was so unnecessary.

"Ari, yo! And Rosalind!" a convivial yell pierced my eardrums. I turned my head and caught sight of Bamb'o, dressed up smartly (he had shoes on), and with far too much healthy colour in his face for the amount of partying which had gone on last night. Perhaps he was still drunk, that would explain it.

Bamb'o tipped his sunglasses at us. "Are you here to watch Theo as well? He looks so fucking funny now." Bamb'o hooted with laughter.

I stared at Bamb'o. "Theo?" I said, understanding slow in coming.

"Yeah, he signed up like after the sixth gym, he told me when he got his pokepod back. Didn't you know?"

I looked back into the distant recesses of my memory. There were probably some clues in there, but even my most pinched frown couldn't extract them.

I shrugged. "Both of us are doing it too." I pointed at Rosalind then myself.

Bamb'o released his sunglasses. "Wow. Look at this. My two assistants, competing side by side..." He sniffled. He was definitely still drunk. "This is going to be so good for publicity."

The bunch of us were all startled by a sudden whoop from further down the hall.

"Route 1 represent!" a voice shrieked. "Chyin-munk, Bir-bie, your insults can't hurt me!"

"What the fuck is that," Bamb'o gasped.

"It's Amy," I said, my eye bags drooping down to the floor.

We made our hungover way down the hall and reached an open door, the shiny marble surfaces beyond plastered with Chicoatl feathers. A veritable tornado of them swirled underneath the ceiling fan as Amy released her pom-poms with a boisterous cackling.

"Ari!" she shrieked when she caught sight of me. "Ermahgerd!"

"Hello there, 2006," I said.

"Are you playing today?" she asked excitedly.

"Yup," I said. "You?"

Amy pouted. "I only have two badges... But mum said we could come watch! I'll make up a cheer for you!"

She erupted in an impromptu routine. "Trac-ton, Metalynx, we are better than you think! Shale-gas, Daikatuna, you are gonna be a loser."

Rosalind and Bamb'o clapped politely. Those heathens obviously had no appreciation for the finest of arts. "Sick rhymes, my brother!" I said enthusiastically, clapping Amy on the back. She rattled her Chicoatl pom-poms, suitably egged on. Rosalind looked horrified. I was unapologetic.

We left Amy to practise her slick moves, and moved on to the head of C wing, which opened out into the cavernous entrance lobby. Competitors and their squads were milling in groups, and the thunderous roar of their echoing conversation slammed into us full force when we left the relative calm of the accommodation wing.

I'd never seen anything like it. Nice. The closest we got to this kind of spectacle in Moki Town was a fire drill at school. I felt my stomach pinch with nerves as an announcement came over the tannoy: "All competitors please move to your assigned area."

This message was repeated three times, and various organs had floated up into my throat by the time I caught sight of four huge LED displays at the far side of the hall. These each sported a list of eight ID numbers, and I saw mine at the bottom of the fourth. Lucky last.

"That's you, right?" Bamb'o said, pointing at a large set of double doors topped with a neon-lit number 2.

It took me a second to realise he wasn't talking to me.

"Yep. Those glasses serve you well," Rosalind said with a smirk. "All right Ari. I'm off. I hope we meet in the final! Best of luck to you!"

She enveloped me in a bear hug and I breathed in the freshly shampooed scent of her hair. Desperate.

"Good luck," I mumbled back.

Rosalind trotted off with an air of quiet confidence, and I watched her go, impressed. Bamb'o accompanied me as I shuffled through the crowd towards door 4.

"Can you see Theo?" he kept asking, craning his neck to peer over the masses. "His phone is still off."

Theo was pretty tall these days, so I spotted him easily. Bamb'o's sunglasses probably filtered out colours. I watched the fire-engine red mop of hair float along with the human tide towards door 1, and pointed. Bamb'o squinted. I had to restrain myself from ripping off his sunglasses.

"He'll be fine," I said. "You ever seen Theo back down from a challenge?"

I couldn't believe I was the one reassuring Bamb'o here. His brow was creased with worry. "He's younger than you, Ari," he said.

"Kind of," I snickered. Ok, that was uncalled for.

I watched on with mild interest as the red mop stretched and cleaved into two, like a reproducing cell. So Cameron was here too. I duly pointed this out to Bamb'o, and he let out a big breath, reassured.

So it looked like Kellyn hadn't made it after all. I forced my eyes to stop scanning the crowds, and told myself I wasn't disappointed. I had my boss here and an annoying (in the best way) ten-year-old girl cheering sick rhymes for me from the sidelines. Auntie would probably be watching on TV.

I was going to be okay.

"All right, Ari," Bamb'o said hesitantly, and we paused at the side of door 4. His hands fidgeted nervously. I realised he hadn't done this before either.

"Well, I guess all I can give you are my well wishes..." he stuttered. "Oh! And these." He reached into his bag and brought out a fresh shrink-wrapped six-pack of Max Revives.

"Thanks man," I said, claiming the items.

"You've got this, my main buddy," he said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Good luck, though you don't need it. Go kill 'em."

"Thanks," I mumbled again, and Bamb'o gave a weird kind of smile, which I assumed was meant to be encouraging, before turning away to join the crowd which flowed slowly into the stadium seating area.

The room beyond door 4 was surprisingly empty and quiet. This didn't really help with the nerves.

The other seven in my group were already here, and I was properly surprised to see Sheldon and Gentleman Sr. Goldkorn among my opponents. There was Cali as well!

"Woah, hi Ari," she said, running up to me with a big smile and open arms. We had a hug but she smelled like ocean and sunscreen, not my thing.

"I'm nervous as hell," she said, jumping up and down. "How you doing?"

"Yeah, fine," I lied, as my organs fought duels inside me. "You'll be okay."

"You think so?" she said hopefully. "I just hope I have a good time, that's all. I'm not really fussed about winning."

I snickered and looked at the floor. I didn't even know why I was here. It just felt like what you did after claiming all your badges. Suddenly I was even less sure about my life and things than I had been.

My mounting existential dread was interrupted by a chime from the PA, and the others looked up too. "Round 1 battles: Stage A, Sheldon and Ravin. Stage B, Cali and Ari. Stage C, Goldkorn and Les. Stage D..." I zoned out. The other competitors were just plebs like me. "Round 1 begins in five minutes. Please prepare your teams."

I quickly broke from Cali to ambush Sheldon. Our teams were all still on full health, so there wasn't much that needed doing.

"Sheldon," I huffed, running up.

"Oh, Ari!" he said, eyes widening. "I didn't know you were coming!"

"Surprise," I said.

Sheldon wasn't one to languish in being caught off guard. He quickly felt up his pockets. "Solana told me to give you this if we met again," he said, handing me a strange sphere which pulsed with a sort of warm radiance.

I glanced warily at Sheldon. I'd had enough of fucking uranium to last me a lifetime.

Sheldon stared back at me. Suddenly, he started to chuckle. "Huh. Huh, huh." He was really losing it. "Huh, huh, huh!"

I waited for the outbreak to subside.

"It's not uranium," Sheldon eventually regained enough control of his breathing to say. "It's a Life Orb, a battle item. Solana got it from Zhery, she wants you to have it as a thanks."

I accepted the Life Orb.

"If your pokemon holds that, its moves will all be boosted by 10%. But it will lose some of its HP every round, so it's good for a glass cannon."

"Thanks," I said. I ran over my steel beasts in my mind. Blades probably came closest to a glass cannon, and its solitary strong move didn't even have 100 accuracy.

I slotted the Life Orb neatly into my bag. It would suffice as a heat pack for injuries.

"Solana's out there watching," Sheldon grumbled. "She's gonna stop cheering for me now."

His pity party was interrupted by the final call, and my organs offered me a large stabbing. One of them was probably going to rupture at this rate.

"All competitors, please proceed to assigned stages for round 1."

"Good luck," I said to Sheldon. He grinned. He didn't need luck.

I headed out to stage B alongside Cali, who was jittery with nerves. But she settled down almost completely once we emerged into the brilliant spotlight, and waved to the audience with an excited grin. They loved her vibrantly coloured skimpy outfit. I examined my own disintegrating hoodie and shorts, stained with the dyes of hardship.

"Round 1, battle 14! Cali vs. Ari!"

I scanned the giant arena with its 16 stages, but it was far too big to get a good look at anyone besides Cali. The lights sought out my eyes as if to spite me.

"Rules are as always: Pokemon limited to 6, Items limited to held items plus 5. Begin fighting!"

Cali laughed elegantly. "I hope this'll be fun for both of us!"

She sent out her first pokemon, her trusty Escartress (a towering sandcastle snail, Sableau but stronger).

My first pokemon, by some stroke of misfortune, happened to be Tracton. I'd probably put it there as a meat shield, noob mistake when the stakes were actually high. I wasted a turn switching out to kitty, which took the Earthquake attack in better form.

Even kitty could outspeed the colossal Escartress, and went next with an ultra effective OHKO of Leaf Blade. The crowd cheered. I thought I heard Amy's rapping, but that was definitely just imagination because there were thousands of spectators.

Next came the dreaded Cocancer, the final evolution of Cocaran. Kitty hissed at the veritable island of a crab, which stared back with unblinking eyes. Kitty's first move of Leaf Blade did very minimal damage on its sturdy shell, and Cocancer retaliated with the punters' fave of Guillotine.

Kitty, being a lazy piece of shit, did not move out of the way in time even for this infinitesimally speedy of attacks, and Cocancer's claws came down to pierce through its grassy body, incapacitating it. Fuck my entire life.

I stroked the howling kitty's fur as I sent out Shalegas in its place. With the Mega Evolution, and a lucky super-effective Laser Pulse (remember that the useless electric type was one of the options for this move), Cocancer was pummelled into oblivion.

I had to start taking more care. It seemed like everyone here had prepared full teams of 6 pokemon, whereas I was chugging along like a fraud with 4 useable beasts. And they all had the same typing.

I'd turned into one of those generic monotype trainers I kept battling at the sides of obscure routes...

In the end I needn't have worried. Shalegas's ability-boosted Dark Pulse ripped through Brainoar (evolved Brailip with larger body and smaller lips), and the rest of Cali's ocean creatures were slain shockingly by blades and its high-calibre Swords Dance. The audience gasped along with me. Even Syrentide, notorious special wall, couldn't hold it out against blades' monster speed and razor hands, and by the time Tubareel was sent in blades' attack was so high in the stratosphere the fleshy opponent crashed out after a mere two turns.

My bag was very light when I hoisted it back onto my shoulders. The hyper potion compartment deflated sadly like a balloon with a hole in it.

"Round 1, battle 14," the MC dictated. "The winner is Ari!"

Cali's face was split in a beaming smile. "I didn't see any of that coming. I thought for sure I'd won once I beat Metalynx... congratulations. It was fun!"

We shook hands to the clicking of cameras. I regretted not buying some new clothes, but then again I'd been a bit strapped for free time recently.

We were escorted back to the waiting room, and I found Sheldon lounging there already, basking in the light of a quick victory. Cali gave me another hug before claiming her souvenir participation medal and heading out to the spectators' stands.

I quickly worked on my hacked-up pokemon team. The hole in kitty's side was sufficiently repaired with a growth-promoting Max Revive, and I applied an Ether to blades' depleted Aqua Tail.

"What are you doing?" Sheldon hissed.

"Huh?" I asked warily. Was he trying to one-up me in the next round...?

"There's a healing machine in the corner," he said with a smirk. I turned my head slowly. Well.

The beasts got a proper rest in the machine while I failed to locate a bar.

"Congratulations winners!" the candid announcer dictated, as the other competitors streamed back into the room. Sr. Goldkorn's defeated opponent was dispatched with an obligation-free thirty day trial subscription. The other pleb cast me a withering glance as he found my perfectly healed pokemon still loafing around in the massage chamber.

"Round 2 battles: Ari and Sheldon, Stage A. Sr. Goldkorn and Taylor, Stage B. Round 2 begins in five minutes. Please prepare your teams."

I did not make the Tracton mistake again, and, sizing up Sheldon's likely team, switched Shalegas to the front for coverage. I had passable expertise on steel types, and would've taken on anything on my team with Shalegas, even Shalegas itself.

We sat in awkward silence. A heavy feeling of foreboding was settling over me, but I'd probably just had a long week and was coasting down from the adrenaline spike of the opening round.

"Use the Life Orb?" Sheldon asked suddenly.

"Yep," I said. "Works a charm."

We lapsed back into placidity.

Sheldon browsed his phone idly while the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Get a grip, I yelled at myself. There was no way Curie could get into this place. Plus, there were thousands of people to pin them down if by some impossible alignment of the fabrics of quantum space they managed to tunnel through the walls... I groaned. I'd just remembered that Urayne could tunnel through walls.

I quickly diverted my attention to another subject. "Goldkorn," I spluttered, drawing a surprised look from the addressee.

"Yes, young trainer?"

"I would like to buy a magazine subscription."

Goldkorn sprung into action. My phone number and Auntie's address in Moki Town were taken down, and I selected from the extensive list of available titles. I thought Auntie might appreciate Home Improvements for Independent Women (what absolute malarkey), and quickly finalised my order. Well, that was her seventieth sorted at least.

"All competitors, please proceed to assigned stages for round 2."

I breathed a sigh of relief.

Sheldon led the charge to Stage A, and I was presented with an improved view of the audience. Still, the distant faces were blurry, and I almost welcomed it, because at least that way I had no conclusive proof Kellyn hadn't turned up.

"Rules are as always: ..." the MC droned on, and I tuned out. I focused on Sheldon's chiselled expression of easy confidence and imagined small children crying when I lifted my own face to the lights.

"Begin!"

The call spurred us both into action. Sheldon sent out Gararewl, and I punted Shalegas into the arena. This was going to be a reach if Laser Pulse didn't step up to the mark.

Shalegas's stone locked in with my Mega Bracelet, and the familiar legs extended from its dome. "Laser Pulse!" I yelled. "Fire," I added quietly under my breath.

Shalegas loosed an Ice-type laser pulse.

That creature had always hated me.

I closed my eyes in defeat, but this was an overdramatic reaction. All the opposing Gararewl did was raise its physical defense, so I hadn't lost any ground besides a bit of PP.

"Go again, Laser Pulse," I shouted. "You big old bastard."

A beam of fire blasted from Shalegas's cannons, so that worked. I rapped it triumphantly on the dome as Sheldon's Gararewl folded to the ground. Shalegas refrained from turning to unleash a dark pulse on me. I guessed it was just as scaly with taking compliments as I was.

"All right. Go, Elaine!" Sheldon whooped, sending out his big S51-A.

I readied myself. Our levels were similar, and Elaine also held a mega stone, so it just came down to whose EVs and IVs were better now.

"Shalegas," I shouted. "Dark pulse!"

"Elaine!" Sheldon shouted. "Dark pulse!"

I held my breath. Sheldon looked constipated so I knew he was holding his breath too.

They moved at the same time. "Fuck," I groaned, as the two shadowy waves crashed into our S51-As simultaneously, and they were sent staggering.

Orange... red... I gripped my pokepod tightly as it tracked Shalegas's health.

Low red... I closed my eyes in defeat.

The cry of an S51-A sounded. I readied Shalegas's pokeball.

"Dammit!" Sheldon thundered, and my eyes flew open in shock. Elaine had fainted. Shalegas stood wobbling before me, 2HP remaining.

I turned my eyes to the heavens and said a quick prayer that Tarou would find all the dumplings he ever desired.

Huffing and puffing, face the colour of Chimaconda's red parts, Sheldon sent out Tracton. Great. He was planning to outspeed Shalegas and knock it out with some weak move.

I rummaged around in my bag for some battle items. I found my last remaining hyper potion. Three rounds to go after this one, but I'd rather lose to some random than to Sheldon. Besides, I knew that Shalegas would appreciate the chance to survive the battle and strut around like a big shot.

Tracton, predictably, landed a Headbutt. This did approximately 10HP damage. I readied Shalegas for the assault by opening its glass hatch and whispering in its ear, "You suck worse than Otto Hahn stealing Lise Meitner's fission theories."

Suitably enraged, Shalegas sent out the strongest attack it could muster, a fire-type critical hit Laser Pulse, which blasted into the front plate of the Tracton, punting it into cerebral orbit.

"Solana," Sheldon bleated as his Beloved collapsed into unconsciousness with its characteristic roar.

Sheldon's remaining pokemon were a walk in the park – dual psychic types, no steel. The pair of Electrics (Praseopunk and Neopunk) probably came closest to putting a dent in Shalegas, but Dark Pulse was too much of a killer by now to bestow much wriggling room.

Shalegas had literally just knocked out the entire of Sheldon's Championship team by itself.

I was never going to hear the end of this.

"Well done, Ari," Sheldon said with a sigh, casting a wary glance at the beast, which was posing for the cameras. "That was a fair fight."

We met to shake hands in the middle of the stage, but Shalegas's parading probably impaired the sight lines of any cameras trying to get a snap of us.

"Round 2, battle 7! The winner is Ari!"

I glanced towards the blurry crowd in time to see two blobs of green waving madly in countercurrent circles. Amy's Chicoatl pom-poms.

The traipse back into the waiting room was enjoyable once I'd sucked Shalegas back into its ball. Sheldon accepted his participation token with a surly expression. I did feel slightly sorry for him. Being Tandor's steel-type specialist was a big part of his identity.

I resumed my search for a bar, this time heading in the other direction. I didn't find any oases, but happened instead upon an LED display showing the trainers still standing in the tournament. A lit yellow line led all the way up to round 3 from my name, and Sheldon's line was extinguished at round 2.

I saw Rosalind going through to the next round, as well as Theo... some of the other names were familiar – Tiko had been eliminated in round 1, and Hokage was still going with his round 2 match.

I'd better turn back. I would be facing the winner of Sr. Goldkorn's match next, and I was ready to whoop some capitalist ass.

I hadn't made it five metres back down the deserted corridor when hands clamped down hard on my arms. I would've yelled out had something soft not been placed over my mouth, cutting off my air supply.

I kicked with my legs and my legs were grasped too. I looked up into the eyes of the blue ranger I had battled in the ascension tunnel.

"It's time," was all he said.

The soft thing was pulled up over my eyes and everything went dark. I felt myself beginning to move. So, I wasn't crazy after all. Curie had come through the walls. Of course I would've felt it, our minds were fucking linked like the magnetic fields in a transformer's coils. Curie was always the one doing the inducing, naturally.

I powerlessly let myself be hoisted to wherever my final destination was, and a strange roaring sound filled my ears.

Without warning, I was set down and the bag ripped from my head.

I gasped until my lungs almost exploded at the scene in front of me.


	48. Curie Part I

Well, okay, the gasping was mostly because the bag had very little by way of ventilation. I had long since ceased being shocked by things that went on around me.

Besides, the scene was familiar – I was sitting on my ass in the middle of one of the stages, fenced in by four blue rangers, and the roaring I'd heard was the cheering of the audience, which had now fallen silent.

I wasn't sure exactly what had effected this sudden paralysis, but I looked around and considered the options:

1) The hoardes of glowing, stylus-frozen pokemon belonging to the competitors who were still battling (I realised belatedly that I had yet again forgotten to give the Tractonite to Kellyn... if only he'd actually turned up.)

2) Me, a hostage, being carried into the arena masked with a potato sack

3) The green-brown-tinged radioactive dust which was slowly settling over the whole scene

And, finally,

4) Its source – a spectre of doom in the very centre stage, which had recently been vacated by two terrified trainers. Urayne hovered in its usual menacing way, several metres off the ground, but even my mouth gaped open in horror as its new appearance.

A far reach from its skinny Alpha Forme, and even miles removed from the fleshy Beta Forme, the slowly spinning orbs over Urayne's head now scraped against the domed ceiling of the arena, at least twenty metres in height.

Urayne's eyes were empty. Straddling its right shoulder, gas-masked as always, sat the tiny speck of Curie, almost invisible through the thick haze.

There was someone else up there, but I couldn't see who. They were hidden behind Curie.

"Don't panic." Curie spoke genially through Urayne, whose huge body acted as an amplifier so even the most cheaply-ticketed patrons could hear.

I didn't see any panic, or even any movement. There was a slight stirring in small gaggles, but I guessed the consternation was still setting in. Big culture shock from a life of family day trips and minor inconveniences.

"The dust isn't radioactive... I asked Urayne to control itself, because I want you all to stay. It's very important to have an audience for these things."

My blood temperature dropped a few degrees.

_"_ _It would be pointless to destroy you here – the scene is incomplete without a suitable audience."_

Curie laughed, and the sound was distorted by another layer. "If you haven't met me before, then don't worry – I won't hurt you. Unless you try to leave, but I'm sure none of you want that... You're getting a free show, so to speak."

I looked around for my bag. It had been removed from me.

The audience was so very still... I mean, I didn't blame them, but I could've really done with saving right about then.

"Betrayal," Curie began, their voice clear and surly, "comes in many formes, just like Urayne. There are big ones, like Gamma Urayne I brought to meet you today; big, obvious, ugly betrayals which everyone can see for what they are."

Curie whispered something to Urayne, which leaned down into the audience and plucked someone up in its newly formed claws.

I saw a shock of red hair and flailing limbs. Cameron.

"You knew I was coming to get you, Cameron. Ari saved you on Omicron Island, you pathetic fool, but you knew I wouldn't forget. You always knew."

"Where is Lucille?! We know she's alive!" Cameron roared.

"You insolent, stupid man..." Curie said. "You waste too much of your energy caring."

Cameron was placed next to me and his hands and feet bound by a blue ranger. "Are you okay?" he whispered to me. I gagged on the dust when I opened my mouth to answer, "Yes."

"And like Beta Urayne, who you might have seen on TV," Curie continued, having seemingly forgotten about us. "There are also smaller betrayals. They're subtle, and more easily forgiven by strangers who don't understand, but they hurt just as much."

Curie leaned down to talk to Urayne again. I tried to get a good look at the other person as Urayne made its murderous selection from the crowd, but it was no use. The angles were terrible.

"Kellyn," Curie sneered. "It was nice of you to drop by. You know, Ari didn't even think you had come, but that would be nothing new, am I right?"

I looked up and gasped. Thrashing in Urayne's claws was... indeed... my father. "Take me," he shouted, and I could barely make out the words. "Let Ari go. Take me instead."

"Like father, like child," Curie snickered. "It's a pity Ari turned out so much like you. Distant. Defensive. All these token displays of bravery that don't make up for anything."

Kellyn was set down and bound beside me and Cameron. The other thousand people in that hall had ceased to exist to me, with how useful they were being.

"I tried to stop you." Curie seemed to be talking to me, and I felt random stabs of anger and bitterness in my head.

"But it doesn't matter now... nothing matters any more. Soon it's all going to be over, this life you made for me. There's only one more forme – the Alpha Forme. It's small, and weak; a grey betrayal. Maybe there were good intentions, and you simply forgot to think about the consequences. But just like sad Alpha can become mighty Gamma with the right fuel, your tiny betrayal has become a terrible thing. I don't care if you meant well. I don't care, because you destroyed me."

My stomach sank as Curie grabbed onto the person beside them and, in one fluid movement, shoved them off Urayne's shoulder.

Time seemed to pass in weird slow motion, like we were inside a stasis tank. The woman's blue uniform was revealed as the momentum of the fall peeled back her dirty white lab coat. Her long, brown ponytail floated up above her, buffeted by air resistance.

_The new one was a tall woman with a ponytail. Her back was turned. "We won't look at her," Curie smirked_. " _We have more important things to do."_

I squeezed my eyes shut instinctively as she smashed into the floor.

It took a long time for me to open them again, but once I did, a fresh new surprise greeted me. My lungs sagged sorely, having lost the impetus to gasp.

"Leave my dad alone!" Theo shouted, puffing from exertion, tugging his frozen Chimaconda from where the woman had landed on its bouncy, fleshy side.

"And leave my friend alone!" Amy shrieked. She placed her Chicoatl pom-poms tenderly underneath the woman's head. A tear rose to my left eye.

"What's wrong with all these kids," Curie snapped. "So eager, so innocent... You are wasting your time. You're helping people who don't deserve it. Stand back, or you will be destroyed too. I'm ready."

"I refuse," Theo yelled. He raised his newly muscled arms in a fighting stance. My mouth fell open.

"Me too," Amy said, glaring. "I'm staying."

"Count me in," Rosalind said, entering left stage holding my mauled and burned bag. I saw the pokeballs in the side pocket, unharmed. "You coward. You want to beat up Ari when they can't even fight back?"

Rosalind tossed my bag towards me. "Dramsama found it. You can thank her later, once we've finished pummelling this bastard."

I stared at all these people. Curie was right. I had done nothing to deserve this. I was aware that a tear had escaped from one of my eyes, punting my coolness level down into the negative, but I could not raise my lashed hands to wipe it away.

"As you wish," Curie said sourly, and the blue rangers marched forward to tie Rosalind and the kids up too.

"You owe me one," Theo whispered.

"Fuck off," I replied fondly.

Newly cautious, Curie hurriedly sealed off the stage by having Urayne deposit piles of dust and rock around the perimeter.

I started nudging my right foot out of its shoe. This was a particularly difficult task with rope around my ankles, but Amy chipped in to help with her little feet and it didn't look too suss. I then proceeded to wiggle my pokeballs out of my bag with my toes as Theo made vomiting gestures at my mangy socks.

The woman on Theo's Chimaconda was coming round, but I was too horrified to pay her much attention. I'd managed to tear open the main pouch of my bag, and the Tractonite was gone. Every last piece of it.

Curie had taken no chances.

I kicked my pokeballs out towards Urayne, but only kitty's and blades' engaged – the other two rolled into the dirt piles. I started to sweat. The pokemon which had come out were indeed completely paralysed, kitty's fur standing on end and crackling with radioactive energy.

Having completed the barrier, Urayne was coming back towards us. The earthy green haze was thickening. Its arm-mounted generators whined into life as it prepared itself to attack. A dismayed murmuring rose up in the audience, and I almost laughed bitterly.

"The bag," a voice suddenly shouted.

My head snapped up like flash frozen steel hit with a sledgehammer. I felt Urayne grind to a stop as well. W h a t?

"The bag! Hinata gave it to you, didn't she?"

My head whizzed around like an improperly secured pressure-cleaning nozzle. It wasn't Rosalind who had spoken... It was the woman on Theo's Chimaconda, pulling herself groggily upright, a gash in her forehead dripping blood down her face. She must have been the one who had looked after me in Venesi and left me this gift in Tsukinami. She looked so familiar.

I didn't get it until I heard Kellyn let out a strangled gasp beside me, the same time that Cameron made an unintelligible shout.

"Lucille?" Kellyn whispered, so quietly that even I had to strain to hear.

"Urayne! Control her!" Curie screamed, and Urayne roared so hard the ground shook. But still this woman, Lucille... my mother, carried on stumbling towards us.

"Urayne! What's wrong with you?" Curie wailed, as the four blue rangers around us lost their stiffened stances, their blank faces replaced with expressions of confusion and panic as they looked around with startled eyes.

"You owe me one too," Rosalind said with a sparkle in her eye, dropping a plastic device which she had clutched between her teeth. Her hair was ruffled and messed up. I realised she'd leaned forward to retrieve the pouch from my bag.

"Ok," I mumbled back. My lips were mashing together but I wasn't even drunk. What was that device?!

"No!" Curie shouted, and the roaring from Urayne's generators intensified. "This can't be! This, everything I've waited for... stuck in that tank... banished from the real world... I won't let you ruin it, Ari! Not after everything I've done for you!"

"Please! Don't hurt them!" Lucille pleaded, turning to look up at Curie, her face caked with blood. "Talk to me. I still love you, I promise."

My mouth fell open. Huh?!

"Be quiet!" Curie screamed. "Urayne, use Proton Beam! Kellyn first!"

"No! Please stop!" Lucille cried, rushing forward to grab onto Kellyn, as if she could shield him from Urayne's vaporising pulse. I stared at them, feeling myself floating away again. My mum and my dad, together for the first time in my memory, one a ranger, one a terrorist, both about to die.

"I love you," Lucille said to Kellyn, holding his face. "I'm so sorry."

"I... I..." Kellyn stammered.

"You're disgusting! Both of you! You never thought about how I suffered, just so you could continue with your disgusting, miserable lives!" Curie shouted, and I could tell they were crying. "You're not useful anymore. I never want to see you again."

And Urayne raised its arms in front of its BODE, pulsating green body, and the scintillatingly bright particle beam exploded from its twin generators, knocking the breath out of me with its force, and blasted towards my parents at the same time as I saw strange specks flying across my peripheral vision. This was it. The radiation was frying my brain. I turned to bid Rosalind farewell... Rosalind?

YOOOOWWWWWLLLL!

The hairs on the back of my neck and arms stood up. My head snapped back to face Urayne. Kitty had leapt up into the path of the proton beam, taking the full force of the attack, being punted back into and crushed against one of the rocky barricades in a violent explosion of dust and crackling radiation.

There was silence.

Someone started pulling at the ropes on my hands and I instinctively bristled, before Rosalind grabbed me by the shoulders and told me it was one of the freed blue rangers, untying me.

I realised the flying specks I'd seen were styluses, being thrown out of the arena.

Curie was starting to panic as the blue rangers and us newly freed hostages rallied. They took their frustration out on Lucille, who was still in their line of sight. "How could you abandon me like that, in that place?" Curie shrieked. "How could you just leave me there to suffer?"

Urayne glowed and pulsed with radioactive energy and hovered overhead, waiting for the next order to attack.

"I was in there years... years that you never came back for me. Urayne! Use Proton Beam! Get her!"

My mother's hands were shaking, but Kellyn's were shaking worse. Lucille raised her arms to protect them both as Urayne raised the giant generator on its left.

"Kitty!" I shouted, my wits suddenly regathering about me in a surge of energy. "Kitty, use leaf blade!"

But there was no response. Kitty had been knocked out cold by the first blast.

"Blades!" I roared as the first sign of light appeared on Urayne's arm. "Blades, get in there! Use Aqua Tail!"

I looked around frantically. I could see my parents, Rosalind, the blue rangers... where were the others? Blades was knocked out stone cold by that critical hit of Proton Beam, with its SHIT special defense. Where was Shalegas?! Sweat was pouring down my brow.

Curie laughed maniacally. "What was I worrying for? Ari, you're weak after all! Urayne... this is it. This is the end. Use Fallout!"

"Splendifowl!" a high-pitched voice shrieked. "Use Hurricane!"

"Ellie, Aqua Jet!" Theo's deep voice roared.

"Pajay, use Air Slash!" another familiar voice shouted. I saw a flash of fire-red skirts.

"Cocancer, Mud Tomb!" Blue hair.

"Solana, use Iron Head!"

"Dramsama!" Rosalind yelled, hurriedly equipping the ghostly pokemon with a Focus Sash. "Shadow Ball!"

I looked around me in shock as the shouts poured in one after the other. They all blurred into one, and the hoarde of pokemon and their trainers rushed towards the centre stage, clambering over the piles of rock (or just blasting straight through in Sheldon's case).

Overwhelmed, Urayne let out a screech and unleashed its most powerful attack of Fallout, going critical in a desperate attempt to save both itself and Curie.

But it was too late.

With an earth-shattering roar, Urayne took the full brunt of attacks from all side – Ellie's lightning-fast Aqua Jet, Dramsama's powerful ghost attack, Splendifowl's blinding Hurricane – and even though many of these pokemon were knocked out after using their moves, it was enough.

I scrambled forward to grasp Shalegas's pokeball from beneath the barrier, and in the same instance, Urayne imploded.

There was surprisingly little sound.

The huge monster simply lifted its head and arms one final time, then a curious wave of energy shot out from its middle, blowing me, Lucille, Kellyn and all the others off our feet. Its enormous Gamma body disappeared immediately in a blinding flash of light to be replaced by the tiny familiar forme of Alpha Urayne.

Curie came toppling from that twenty metre height, their radiation suit and mask flapping gently in grotesque parody of Lucille's fall, and this time there was nobody to catch them.

"No," Lucille said again, rushing forward towards Curie before the dust had even begun to settle. Their suit was torn, and an arm was poking out. Lucille ripped the rest of the suit off them, gently lifting the head as she eased the helmet and gas mask off.

What I saw next made my blood run cold.


	49. Curie Part II - Ending

A Note about this chapter: I've heard from some of my friends that my ending is a bit weird... so if you like it, great, if you don't, fair enough. I just want to say though that without this ending in the back of my mind (I wrote the first half about 2 months ago and it's been sitting here waiting), chapters 27-48 would never have happened. Hope you enjoy!

cw: character death 

...

Inside the radiation suit... behind the war-like interface... was me.

I stared until I swore my eyes would start bleeding.

It wasn't me in my current state. I wasn't sure how old this fraud, this duplicate was, but they were definitely younger than me, and they were definitely _me._

The nose, the eyes, the stringy knotted hair... the weird pit I've always had on my chin. Even the omnipresent frown I hadn't noticed I'd developed, but pulled me up short every time I looked in the mirror.

The only discrepancies were the differing injuries on our faces.

"I'm sorry sweetie, I'm sorry," Lucille wept, bending over the little me and gently caressing their hair. I felt irrational anger well up inside me. Go figure, this seemed to have become my default response to any sort of vexation.

Mother, I'm over here, I felt like shouting. I'm the one who hasn't just spent the past hour trying to kill you! I don't know who that is, or where it came from, but the real me is here!

Kellyn was standing like a statue behind us. I could almost feel him bristling. I didn't think he had known.

"Lucille..." he said eventually, his voice low. "What's the meaning of this?"

"I'm sorry," Lucille said, her face in her hands. "I never meant for any of this to happen. They infected all of us with the serum... the one I told you about."

I glanced at the others. There was no comprehension on any of their faces, not even Kellyn's. If they weren't healing their pokemon, they were watching on silently. The stillness was absolute. Curie was still commanding total attention in their death(?).

Lucille faltered but, prompted by Kellyn's icy stare, explained, "The one we created, to enhance communication with Urayne... But it was meant to work the other way round. We were supposed to be able to control it. I gave Ari the antidote because I knew –"

"Stop," Kellyn said, and we all looked at him in surprise. His face might as well have been cut from stone. I almost felt proud, for a very split second. Heaven knew I wasn't coping that well myself.

"Save it," he said harshly. Lucille flinched. "Who, or what, is this?"

"It's Ari..." she replied.

"I can see that," Kellyn almost yelled. There followed a long pause.

"I... I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to see you lose them. You would have been devastated."

Kellyn kept his gaze straight, but he was shaking. With shock, or anger, I couldn't tell. His face was still stoic. I looked at Lucille. I looked at Kellyn. I looked at myself.

"You remember how sick they were..." Lucille said, her voice wavering. "I just couldn't bear seeing you so upset. And the medical bills..."

"You didn't," Kellyn said severely.

"I did."

Kellyn sprang away from me, like some sort of repulsive force field had just materialised around my body. I started to sweat. His eyes bored into mine, and it was like watching someone look upon Frankenstein for the first time.

I couldn't quite wipe the horror off my face as I turned to look at Theo, and Rosalind... there was no change there. They shrugged helplessly.

"Kellyn, what's happening?" I asked at last, my throat dry. The fucking dust hadn't dissipated yet, though Urayne floated serenely and harmlessly in front of us in Alpha Forme, mocking our strife.

"That's my child... that one is my child..." Kellyn whispered, staring at the kid in the Curie suit. My eyes widened. Was this some sick joke? Lucille was nodding. I began floating off into space.

"What?" I asked with inhuman effort, trying to drag myself back down to the correct plane.

Lucille turned to look at me. "You don't remember much from when you were little, do you?" Curie was starting to stir. So they weren't dead after all.

I shook my head slowly.

"The memory transfer was incomplete..." my mother continued. She bit her lip and added another rivulet of blood to the delta forming on her face.

"You're a clone," she said at last. "You were so sick as a child, you were probably going to die, and it would have destroyed your father... I cloned you into a healthy body using Larkspur's machine. I couldn't tell Kellyn."

The silence now grew even heavier, if such a thing were possible. I had become increasingly dizzy throughout Lucille's speech and by now, my head was spinning. Was it even my head? Who the fuck was I?!

Colour was returning to Kellyn's face; he looked like he was going to erupt, but Lucille pressed on. All or nothing, right?

"I put Ari into the stasis tank, so their mind would have a chance to keep living, and their body wouldn't perish... I'm sorry. I realise now that was the wrong, selfish thing to do. But I just couldn't bring myself to stand by and watch my child die, when there was another way..."

The kid had woken up. Lucille rushed back to hold the murderous little shit's hand. I was in shock. "I'm here. I'm sorry," Lucille said softly to them, peeling back the ripped-up suit to give them more air.

"Hi," Curie said with some difficulty. They looked past Lucille and slowly surveyed the scene, then drifted back towards me with despising, sick, sunken eyes. "So you haven't got rid of me yet?" they sneered. "Charitable. So I finally get to meet you, face to face... The freak who lived for me all these years..."

"What... What do you mean?" I barely managed to croak.

"Need a drink, do you?" they said wickedly. They let their joke sink in for a while as the tension in the room gained insidious intensity.

"Our minds were always connected. Like mummy said, her transfer process never completed... Everything that ever happened to you, I saw and felt. Just like I showed you, when you joined me for those lovely trips. That was it. That was my life. That's how I grew up, even though I'm still stuck in this stupid body."

I saw now that the suit had been much too big for them, padded with old clothes though it was.

"And..." they smirked. "I was always there with you too, in your head."

No. No, no, no. Where was this going. "But you just talked to me," I hissed. "All the things I did were my own choice. It was all me. All of this, I..." I was desperate to reassure myself that my life had been real. I was nothing without my pokemon and my friends.

"Are you sure?" Curie said with a lazy smile. My lazy smile. "Are you really sure? Why could you never stop being cruel to Theo? How come you still don't dare to get close to Rosalind? Easy, because I hate those people. Heh, how about this one... Have you ever been able to explain why you despise Kellyn so much, even to yourself?"

I couldn't let them get to me. "He abandoned me as a child. I thought you were smarter than that. It was natural." Kellyn looked away.

"No it wasn't," Curie sniggered, entertained. "I felt you starting to trust him after you saw he cared about you. On route 11, in Nowtoch City, on Omicron Island... But deep down, you never came around. Things always went back to how they were. And that was me." They smiled wickedly.

I didn't know what to say. Was this like some twisted confirmation of the existence of fate?

Curie was weak. They'd been very sick even going into the stasis tank all those years ago. Urayne's energy had helped, but that was seriously depleted in Alpha Forme, and we could all see them starting to fade, laughing bitterly all the way.

Lucille, and even Kellyn, despite himself, knelt down at Curie's side and held them while they died.

I turned away. I gripped tightly onto my kitty, which someone had applied a Max Revive to, and planted my face in its grassy fur, breathing in its scent. A little bit of normality... kitty wauled and smacked its steely lips. I smiled while crying.

Lucille pulled the mask back down over little Ari's face. She was crying too, but for a different reason.

"I can't ever forgive myself," she said. "All this trouble... it was all because of me."

I eyed my parents warily. It did feel like a part of me had just hit the road. I wasn't sure if that was because of the shock I'd been through or if Curie really had been in my head...

"Ari," Kellyn piped up suddenly, and my head snapped up in surprise. He was looking at me intensely. He let go of Curie.

"I love you, Ari, and I'm damn sorry I haven't shown it enough. You've always been, and you always will be our only child." He glanced at Lucille, who nodded tearfully. In the absence of reply, he pressed on. "I'm... I'm really proud to see the person you've become. Despite everything that's happened to you, despite having this influence in your head... you've come out a strong and a good person. I don't know if I could've done it."

I looked at the floor. I wanted to believe him. Everything would've been fine again if I'd just fucking believed him.

"Okay," I said miserably, which did nothing to stem Lucille's melancholic tears.

I noticed audience members were starting to tiptoe out of the stadium, now that Gamma Urayne had obviously been defeated. I didn't blame them. Who among us came here to watch a dysfunctional family and a gaggle of misfits try to work through their debauched history and hug it all better? Kellyn seized the sudden lull in action to call some rangers and have Curie's body removed.

It all seemed so final.

Urayne floated over awkwardly, somehow moved by the sight of Lucille. She looked up at it and broke down again. "You still remember me?"

I didn't want to hear any more. I stood up, grabbed Theo's arm, and angrily brushed away the tears which soiled my face. "Let's go," I said. Nobody tried to stop us.

Outside, away from the dust and the bright lights, we found a deserted waiting room to huddle in the corner of. Theo put his arm lamely around the wrong part of my shoulder, and I shifted uncomfortably. At least twenty minutes of silence passed.

"Curie looked kinda big, don't you think?" Theo said eventually. "Like _you_ were already in Moki Town when you were, like, five."

"Can we not talk about this?" I said through gritted teeth.

"I'm just saying," Theo sulked. "Their stasis tank probably got smashed in that explosion, just like mine did. So they got all big too."

He had a point. "Still don't wanna talk about it."

We lapsed back into silence. I still had my kitty out so I combed through its fur. This thing could've entered a beauty pageant by the time I was done with it.

"Well I guess the Championship is cancelled," Theo said sadly.

"More time to prepare to flog you." I was actually slightly relieved.

"But we go back to school in January."

I groaned loudly. Of all the other topics Theo could have chosen...

"It's a weekend. We'll just come then."

Theo giggled. "Imagine training while doing your maths homework."

I thought about the beasts, and sadly realised I would have to store them away for a while. I couldn't exactly cart Shalegas around the school halls; there would be a fucking riot. Pokemon were banned on campus anyway; even the battling classes had to go to a separate gym.

I examined kitty, memorising all the details on its face so I could sketch it when I got bored in economics. I gave it a smoochy smooch on its grassy cheeks.

"Excuse me," a strange voice said.

Theo and I looked up in unison.

Alpha Urayne floated before us, the little orbs over its head spinning steadily. Its condescending expression had mellowed into what could've been interpreted as an apologetic one.

Urayne looked away. "My friend told me to make sure you were okay." It didn't have a mouth. How was it speaking?

"Your friend?" Theo asked, confused.

"Yes. Dr Lucille Mayer. She was worried about you."

"Touching," I added unnecessarily.

"How do you know each other anyway?" Theo got underway with 20 Questions.

Urayne lowered itself a bit further so we could look into its eyes. Thanks for the nightmares (just kidding). "I remember waking up in a big, dark, tank. I couldn't move, but somehow I knew that I was alive. I was so frightened. But Dr Lucille found me and calmed me down, and she kept coming back to talk to me. She told me who I was - my name was Urayne, she said. I was going to be useful and help the people of Tandor. That made me happy, even though it was horrible staying in the tank."

I gulped. This had been Curie's wretched life as well. I could've even blame them for becoming so twisted.

"But one day, things changed..." Theo was absorbed; eyes wide, mouth slightly agape. I restrained myself from taking a picture of him. "My friend changed. She started talking about new things. Scary things. How she had to get me out of there, before it was too late... She talked about a tunnel. How I was going to be free at last, how she wouldn't let anyone destroy me."

"That must have been Larkspur!" Theo exclaimed. I watched on silently.

"I was excited to see the world with my friend, but she said it would take time to get everything ready. I didn't understand, but I waited. Then one day something very strange happened. Someone wore the suit to talk to me, and I expected my friend Lucille. Only, it wasn't her. It was someone new, and they didn't know me. They didn't say very much at all."

"Curie's suit?" Theo frowned. "That must've been how they used to communicate with you, right? Before the serum and all that."

"Yes," Urayne said. "The new person stayed in the tank with me, but they were sad all the time, and I was very lonely without Lucille. She never came back for me. I never heard from her again. Some time later, there was a strange shaking, and I heard my new friend speak for the first time. They said to me, 'She left us both. We are suffering because of her.' Someone opened the door of the tank, and a strange feeling came over me... I wanted to hurt Lucille for leaving me, and I think my friend felt the same. Suddenly, I could control all of the people outside. I could feel where they were, and what they were doing... and thinking. I had so much power. My friend was very happy."

Theo shook his head, doing all the right movements, being a good audience. I sat there feeling numb.

"We kept staying in the tank, or a new one. I don't know. My new friend Curie said to me that we might never see the outside world again, so they were going to build us a whole new one. I controlled the other people so they would dig tunnels for us. I was confused about why - but Curie told me it was so we would be happy again, and I wanted that very much. Eventually, I couldn't tell what was me and what was Curie anymore. We must have been in the tank a long time together."

"Ten years," Theo said, practically drooling. I wanted to slap him.

"When we finally came out of the tank, I experienced a new feeling. I was hungry. Hungry for fuel. Curie took me through the tunnels to find it, and I felt they were really my friend then. Things got more and more confused. I needed more fuel, and Curie needed revenge. It consumed us. I attacked when they told me to, because I didn't know what I wanted anymore. But now they're gone... I can think clearly again."

I made a mental note to check up on my beasts and their touchy feelings more often. I wasn't going to be like Curie.

"I miss my old friend, Lucille. I think she was my real friend. She has asked me to live with her again."

I wondered just how this was all going to go ahead. Would Kellyn go back to his bigwig job in Belbeach City? There was no more Larkspur, so what would happen to Lucille, assuming she wouldn't go to jail too? Where would they keep Urayne?

And the biggest question of them all: how the fuck was I going to socially survive hanging out with 20-year-old Theo at school?!

I realised I didn't care. I grinned at Theo. He looked weirdly back at me.

"Why are you staring at me? Do you have a crush on me?"

I pelted him over the head. "Get over yourself."

I turned to Urayne. "Well, thanks for telling us the story." I did feel a bit better, now I had all of the details. Urayne was right. Things were better when they weren't all confused.

"That's okay," Urayne replied. "My friend Lucille will be happy you feel better."

Urayne left us after that, trailing its green-tinged haze as it floated along. Drawn in by the action, some of the others had found our little hidey-hole: Amy came in to play with kitty and Rosalind got a sick selfie with Urayne at the door. Solana and Sheldon sauntered through, the latter complaining (yet again) about the loss of his beloved Tractonite.

"Thanks everyone," I said, a treacherous tear threatening to spill from my stupid weak eyes again.

"It's fine," Sheldon grumbled. "I think you would'a won the Championship anyway. It would be a shame to lose talent like that."

"True," Rosalind added with a wink.

"Hey, not fair!" Theo whinged, sorely missing his fifteen minutes.

It was time to go home. After we'd all signed papers for a legal discontinuation of the Championship, everyone dispersed to go their own way, and things were strangely quiet again. I didn't want to deal with either Kellyn or Lucille, or even Cameron, just yet, or the media shitstorm that was sure to spotlight us all for the next millennium, so Theo and I flew quietly back to Moki Town via the western Tandor coast (to avoid the air corridor), one grasping each of Shalegas's feelers.

Auntie, oblivious about everything that had just taken place, bless her ancient wizened soul, made us scrambled eggs and pancakes for brunch.

Theo made a quick dash back to his house in the middle of it all; he said he needed to delete something from his computer.

I shrugged. Whatever. Auntie fed kitty and Ellie when we let them out, and it felt honestly good and normal (I know, just ignore the lame feelings already). There would be a lot... too many new things to get used to soon, but I suddenly knew I was ready for it.

I finally had the future I never knew I needed. With my pokemon. With my friends. With my family.

I reluctantly admitted it. Thanks to Lucille's actions and Curie's sacrifice, I would have many, many years ahead of me to figure it all out.

Come rain or come shine, a new chapter of my story was beginning.


	50. Epilogue

So, in the end, despite the significant pressure of Kellyn's authority, we lost the push, and Lucille went to jail. For the cloning experiments, for the creation of an artificial life form.

Neither my father nor I would admit it, but we found it a relief. Throughout the course of her five year sentence, reduced on appeal as she had been working underneath Rudi Larkspur, we took the needed time to get used to having her back in our lives. At first it was just a weekly hour-long visit, which we wasted to talk about school and the news, but gradually we all began opening up to each other again. We would sometimes continue our conversations over the phone, especially Lucille and Kellyn, because there was a serious amount of gossip to catch up on and troublesome Ari behaviours to unpack (come on, it was inevitable), and never enough time to do it.

By the time Lucille came home, her presence had ceased to be a talking point. Even ancient Auntie had gotten over the shock eventually, though she now had a deep mistrust of the paparazzi as well as mines and rock-type pokemon.

Kellyn stepped down as head of the Tandor Rangers. He did it the day that Lucille's court battle ended in defeat, and the gossip rags lapped it up – Tandor's beloved, noble ranger chief devoted to supporting his long-lost wife through her persecution. Auntie was sour and thought it unnecessary; Kellyn had left an outstanding salary behind. I introduced her to Gentleman Sr. Goldkorn. They are still close friends to this day.

Kellyn moved in with me and Auntie, and got a job working security at Drake's petrochemical plant. He sometimes spent the whole day cooking a nice meal for Lucille, or preparing their room for her return. He helped me with my homework too, though he usually got it wrong.

As for Urayne, it stayed in a pokeball with us at first, before a court trial was held to determine what to do with it. Lucille's heartfelt testimony shook the jury and the general public, much to the judge's horror, and there were riots for days when he still insisted that Urayne be destroyed. Eventually, he had to relent under the crushing pressure, and it was specified that Urayne could remain unharmed, as long as it was given into the hands of a capable and trustworthy trainer.

Somehow, they decided that this trainer was me. Lucille cried happy tears when Urayne was put into my custody (bit dramatic, really), and I kept it in my party to fill the empty sixth spot.

I entered the April 2017 take for the Championship, to coincide with my school holiday, and lost to fucking Theo. It was even worse than Shalegas's unassisted victory. Even now, he sometimes still mentions it, the goading little shit.

We were never bullied at school because we had become Championship finalists; besides, Theo's new appearance was useful for buying alcohol for weekend parties, so he was very sought-after in the popular circles.

Theo dropped out of school after Year Ten. This infuriated Cameron, but Lucille wrote him a letter reminding him that there are more important things to hold close. It wasn't like Theo's resume would've been completely empty, anyway.

Cameron retired from Interpol after helping to shut down the blue ranger network and Silverport lab, comb through the Baykal copper mine with a fine legal needle, and destroy the remains of the two stasis tanks. Some of the tunnels were kept open for use in Subway extensions, but not very many.

Theo surprised us all when, halfway through my swot vac for year 11 exams (honestly, I swear he did it to spite me), he was announced as the replacement 7th gym leader, a position which had been vacant since Vaeryn was ousted as a fugitive (he went to jail too). The group of us – me, Kellyn, Cameron, Theo's mum, Bamb'o – went up to Snowbank Town for a housewarming party, me furiously cramming my economics notes the whole way, and were joined by most of the other gym leaders. Rosalind was happy to see me again, and I hadn't realised I'd been worried she wouldn't.

Theo turned Snowbank Town around. His feisty personality, his energetic battling style, and probably in no small part his celebrity drew thousands of challengers and visitors alike every year, and coupled with the relocation of the TAPCO headquarters (the bombed site was transformed into a 'Friendship Garden' – a huge joke amongst the locals), Silverport and Snowbank became bustling tourist attractions, the ski fields reopening after a renewed rehabilitation effort by the government.

I finished year 12, but my results were pretty shit. Kellyn wasn't disappointed, though Auntie (predictably) was. Sheldon kindly offered me a job at the rebuilt Vinoville Metals Research Institute, but I politely declined. I asked around at Epsilon Uranium Mine (oh yes, Sheldon and Solana broke up, and the latter was now living very monogamously with Stan!) and Baykal copper mine, but nobody was hiring. It seemed like Tiko's campaigning efforts had seen recent successes, and Amatree was being electrified by tourism.

I decided, with Kellyn and Lucille's help, to use my compounding savings from my battling days to fund a Green Energy start-up, which I immediately hired my mother and Solana as scientists for. (After actually being cut from Inhore University, Solana had returned to Tandor, but was reluctant to take up tenure at the Vinoville MRI due to her sullen ex still lurking around there.)

Lucille started immediately after her release from prison.

We felt like it was time for a shake-up after all those years in Auntie's mansion, and Solana hated Moki Town after all, so we all upped and relocated to Venesi City (a bit of a shame, as Kellyn had spent so long decorating the room). After a couple of years, during which my company saw limited success, I moved out of home and in with Rosalind. We're still, uh, together.

There are a few more employees I should probably mention. Fired from his job at the Baykal copper mine (and definitely his one in Interpol), Bruno joined us as a lab technician. His father Hen Rodriguez (you guessed it) put him through the paces for delicate experimental work.

And our rising star, a genius who graduated high school with a 99.5 ATAR (I'm not joking), who has published almost all of our papers to date, turned out to be Amy. She's working on an enhanced form of solar energy which has finally broken the photovoltaic efficiency barrier.

I still battle with my beasts sometimes. During lulls at work, where I mostly sit in the office doing spreadsheets or bantering with the others (I'm like the producer, I just hand out the money), I will take a break and head to the Venesi Gym for some training with my girlfriend. Shalegas was, unfortunately, the first on my team to reach level 100, and I still regret it. Shalegas's personality has not changed in the slightest.

I re-challenged the Championship and won in 2024, even with the beasts' levels set back to 70, though I had to spend a lot of time studying up on types and move combos again, because you forget that shit when you get old. Theo and Rosalind were both a lot of help here, and kitty's now absolute trust in me proved invaluable.

It's now the year 2026, and I'm 24 years old (I know, I might as well just call it quits already). I have a great new life. I'm the CEO of a... well, admittedly kinda lacklustre green tech company, I'm enabling my beleaguered mother to help Tandor in a legal way this time, and I have an awesome partner who loves me very much. I also have a steely green cat who greets me every day with a mangy smooch when I get home from work.

I sometimes think back to the story I told you earlier, about that twisted ass month that happened when I was 14. There were some times there when I really just wanted to give up and join Shalegas's discretion in hell. Well, I'm here now to tell you that it gets better. Don't give up, because when you turn the page on a new chapter, there's always a chance that the sun's gonna come out and the rain is gonna stop.

Just like that time my underlevelled beasts defeated Ninja Boss Hokage's Tubareel, it can really pay to play on chance.

...

Massive thank you to everybody who's read and commented. It's been a fun ride!


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